Tale Of A Legend
by Spironax
Summary: Ethan Photon, sixteen, two sisters, doubts about how his father actually died, starts his pokemon journey through a Johto on the verge of war, with one goal; To become the Indigo Champion. Behold, Tale Of A Legend. Read, Review, and Recommend to others please. Enjoy, Spironax ;P
1. The Birth of a Legend

**Chapter 1: The Birth of a Legend**

Ethan stood in front of the professor impatiently, waiting for the man to speak as he tapped his foot rapidly, unable to contain the excitement that had been building up for three years. He was standing in a line with the other teenagers from his town wh0 had turned fifteen in the ending month, December. It was a cold harsh day in New Bark Town, every one of the children shivering as they had ducked into the heated lab to get their Pokémon.

"Now all of you took a test in your applications to see which type would most likely suit you since we have equal amounts of each starter Pokémon. This is why we have prepared the test. Your results came to you while you were waiting, so stand in the type area of your result, but if you wish to actually choose, feeling that you don't want the type your result came back as, wait until everybody else is done." The professor explained, gesturing towards three large carpets with the type symbols for fire, water and grass on them.

Professor Elm was a skinny man, average height, and very forgetful. This was the first time he hadn't forgotten about the starter day. All the kids, around twelve, sorted themselves out onto the mats. Ethan sprinted over to the fire mat, his result just as he had expected and wanted as well. His family had been training Typhlosion for years. There was one in his house, belonging to his mother.

There were three other kids on the fire carpet, with around six on the water carpet, and two on the grass carpet. Nobody felt their choices were bad.

"Now you have to let the young Pokémon choose their own trainers for better compatibility. For those whose families donated eggs to their types, the Pokémon will be in a basket with your last name on it. I advise you meet those ones first since hereditarily they are likely to prefer you. But they might not. So just be patient, they're plenty. Have fun!" he explained, pressing a button as the doors behind them into the nurseries opened and they entered quietly, not wanting to disturb the Pokémon.

Ethan walked into a room with two Typhlosion tending to six young Cyndaquils. He looked around the plain, well lit, and ludicrously warm room, noting a basket with a Cyndaquil in it, the tag reading Photon at the bottom. Ethan Photon grinned, walking over to the basket and sitting down next to it, waiting for the little Pokémon to notice him.

The fire type stared up at him, taking in the pale face, thick strands of jet black hair obscuring part of his left eye, the iridescent gold standing out. He pulled down the black cloth mask covering his neck, mouth and nose, letting it fall onto his plain white V-neck, having picked this one mainly for warmth. The Pokémon hopped onto his shoulder, nuzzling his neck as he rose, smiling. He moved his shoulder and the fire type scampered down his arm into his waiting arms. It was really warm.

"Hey buddy. You want to go with me? At least you'll get to see your mother when we're home." He spoke softly, smiling slightly as the warmth spread from his chest and into his body.

The Pokémon nodded, staring at him as he pulled the mask back up, slowly understanding that it kept his face warm and allowed him the ability to continue speaking. Ethan smiled beneath the mask, putting the Pokémon back in the basket and taking his bag off his shoulder.

He put the bag on the floor, digging through it as Cyndaquil stuck it's snout in, taking out a packet of cola flavored candy. He pulled his camera out, putting them down and emptying the bag into the basket.

He sighed, realizing that he didn't have any poke balls except the two Ultra Balls his older cousin had given him in case he needed to run from an attack. He picked one up, lightly touching Cyndaquil's snout with it as the Pokémon disappeared in a flash of light and the ball clicked.

He clipped the now occupied ball onto the diagonal belt extension running from the right side of his chest to the belt around his waist. He repacked his bag, checking his jeans pocket to make sure his phone was still there. He pulled the Slate out, checking the time and his messages as he flipped the phone over, examining the symbol in the glass back, the Company Slate Electronics the new big shots in Hoenn. His father had brought it back for him on his birthday.

Ethan smiled, standing up and checking the symbol underneath his last name on the basket next to Cyndaquil. The fire type was a male. He walked out of the room, to find half the kids standing in front of Professor Elm, who looked like he had bad news.

Ethan waited as the rest of the kids returned, standing with them as the professor opened his mouth twice, unable to say anything. The third time he succeeded.

"Um… how do I put this? Guys, the new laws in Johto strictly say that you have to spend roughly six months with your Pokémon getting to know it and training it a bit before you can leave New Bark as official trainers to make sure you're good enough to take care of yourselves ever since the population decreases and the increasing dangers in the wild. And the risks of war. Sorry. You're not even allowed to leave New Bark anyways for six months. Have a good time. And don't try anything. You're still allowed in the forests at the edges of New Bark since they're relatively safe. Don't try leaving. The guards have a roster of everyone here. They'll stop you until the nineteenth of June. Please don't kill me." He stuttered the last words out as he received death stares from the kids.

Ethan sighed, walking out quietly into the snowed in city and trudging through the path he had cut on his way there, snow already filling it up again. He was pushed forward slightly, so he turned around to find the snowstorm starting up again as they wind started blowing.

His eyes widened as he ran like hell, making for his house and scraping away enough snow to open the door, slipping in and slamming it shut as the snowstorm broke out at full strength again. His mother was standing in the kitchenette, the door to her room closed as she stirred what looked like mac and cheese, the delicious smell wafting throughout the house. He ran up to his room, ditching his bag and making a note to himself to buy poke balls. He examined himself in the mirror. He was thin, lean, built more for running, tallish, around 5' 11", and confident. He was shivering, he realized, probably because he was only wearing his V-neck, jeans, socks and shoes, at about –3 degrees Celsius.

He closed his door, flipping the frosted glass panels inside it to say 'Not here', running down the stairs and letting Cyndaquil out.

"Is he Phloe's kid?" his mother asked, wiping her hands on her apron and looking over as Ethan nodded, standing next to the radiator. She turned back to the ovens.

"Phloe!" his mother called out and the Typhlosion sprinted in from the other side of the house, seeing her child and running up to it.

Ethan sat at the counter as the Pokémon did whatever they were doing, staring at his mother.

"What's for lunch?" he asked, staring out the window as the storm died down again, snow sliding off their roof, most into the dumpster he had dragged there the day before.

"Mac and Cheese, and some cookies later." She replied, staring at him as he tried to sneak out the door.

"ETHAN PHOTON YOU ARE NOT GOING INTO THE FOREST TO PHOTOGRAPH POKEMON TODAY!" she ordered as he froze, walking back to the counter sullenly.

"You are going to eat, go outside, set up the garden cover, convince Phloe to melt the snow, and fix the garden radiator until I can get more Magmortar embers, and then you're going to set up the fireworks, clean the shed, your room, and possibly if you want to, find a nickname for you new friend. And then you can shower. We're having people over for New Year's dinner! You can go to the forest tomorrow." She instructed him as he nodded, his little sister running into the room.

"Pokémon! Have you name it yet?" she asked, struggling to get to the high up bar seat as Ethan picked her up, placing her on it as she turned it.

"Not yet Lily. Still working on that. I need something that suits him. He's a Photon though. Born and bred." He replied as the nine year old shifted in her chair, turning towards him.

Ethan turned around and his sister fell of the chair as an Alakazam and his other sister appeared out of nowhere.

"Bloody Arceus!" Ethan shouted, covering Lily's ears as he spoke, letting go and picking her up. "You really have to start telling us or one of these days Lily will have a concussion! But apart from that, how was work?"

The eighteen year old model laughed, pushing a strand of thick black hair behind her ear before she replied.

"Oh work was good. I've got a new girl under my wing. Pretty, smart, and she's going to go places. I can tell you that. Nearly everybody in the studio envies her."

"Really Lucy?" his mother asked, picking up the dish and ladling it into two bowls, filling two more with a fresh salad, sliding the first two across the counter to Lily and Ethan. "What's her name?"

"Elesa. She's really good company as well, even though she's as old as Ethan." She replied as Ethan removed a bottle of coke from the fridge, opening it with a pocket knife and catching the cap.

Lucy Photon eighteen, 5' 10", Ethan's older sister, the smartest person in New Bark, and the most popular, from her graduating batch of trainers. She was working in Unova as a model. She had taken a magnetic levitation train for around a thousand miles for two and a half hours to the Indigo Teleportation Border. And then she had come with her Alakazam. She came home every week and on special occasions, or for vacations.

Ethan gulped down his lunch, hugging his sister quickly and walking out to get his chores done with. He grabbed Phloe around the waist and dragged the thoroughly annoyed Typhlosion outside, Cyndaquil following. Phloe didn't care much for snow.

"Melt this please so you can go inside." He asked her, going into the shed and staring around it. It was already clean. After all, it was his workshop. His mother forgot that too often. He pulled a box of fiberglass panels and two large wooden poles out, dragging them out to the yard. He emptied the panels onto the floor, fetching the ladder and propping it up against the house. He bored the two poles into the ground at the ends of the garden, fixing them at even heights and clipping the fiberglass panels together. He climbed up onto the roof, clipping the joint panels to the edge, moving the ladder and adding more panels until it covered the entire garden and driveway as Phloe stood up, flames erupting from her back as she melted the snow, Cyndaquil observing his mother and trying to copy her.

"I don't understand why you don't just have me put up barriers." A mental voice sounded in Ethan's head as he fell of the ladder, startled, stopping in midair and going down gently to see Alakazam standing next to him.

"I don't either. But who cares. What's done is done. Any ideas from Cyndaquil for a name?" he asked, turning towards the golden psychic as it bent its spoons repeatedly.

"Quiver might work. He seems to do that for a fraction of a second before he does anything." The psychic replied. "I have decided I do not like the cold. I am going inside."

Ethan sighed, walking out to the street and checking the garden cover. He walked back in, staring at the city for a moment. Dull rays of light pierced the cloud cover, lightning the city up enough to show that it was day, the trees around the edges of the city swaying in the slight breeze, snow falling off them. He walked into the shed again, replacing the now empty box and picking up his tool box to fix the radiator.

"Say Cyndaquil?" he remarked, attracting the young Pokémon's attention as he opened the radiator up.

"Do you want a nickname?" he asked, turning towards it.

The fire type nodded, contemplating the thought.

"How about Quiver? You do that a bit." He suggested, chuckling as the radiator creaked.

The fire type nodded again, jumping onto his shoulder.

"Say, Quiver, could you fuse this?" he asked, ducking as the he pointed towards a broken rivet.

"Quil. Cyn, Quil!" he replied, blowing fire out of his mouth towards the rivet and fusing it as Ethan held it together, his melding gloves protecting him.

"Good boy." He remarked, scratching the Quiver behind his ear.

…

Early the next morning…

Ethan stepped over the pile of snow, his DSLR camera, its tripods, stands and slings in a thick padded bag in case they fell from a tree, his phone in a brick like waterproof, nigh indestructible, battery case.

He could see the sun making its way towards the sky from behind the mountains to the east, running silently to the forest, Quiver running beside him for exercise. He took a path he knew well by now, finding the familiar clearing and climbing up a tree. He unzipped the bag, taking the DSLR out and fixing it to a branch, setting it to record with the option of taking pictures in the middle. He focused it on the clearing, shivering with anticipation.

Every New Year, at sunrise, the Beedrill colony of New Bark's forest, and the Scyther Colony, the top predators in most of Johto, fought for the forests of Johto. In every forest, the Scyther generally won. It tended to be a more even fight in New Bark considering hey were closer to Kanto and the Beedrill population was much, much higher than the Scyther population. Around a dozen times larger to be exact.

Ethan was planning on catching the fight on camera. Most of it at least. He needed to be home before his mother figured out that he left without telling her.

He sat quietly in the tree, patient for once, as he started to see glowing red eyes in the left side of the clearing. Slowly hundreds of Beedrill gathered there, around five hundred. Ethan had witnessed the battle the previous year, but he hadn't had anything on him to record it with. It was too fast to draw. So he had come again. He wondered momentarily where the Scyther were before remembering where they were.

The sun rose slightly, rays of light piercing the clearing as Ethan hit record, his finger on the capture button and his eyes on the clearing. The Beedrill entered the clearing tentatively, thinking they had won. They never learnt that they were walking into a slaughter. Forty one Scyther appeared out of the shadows on the right side, massacring the opposition as their leader, a Scizor, appeared, taking on fifty Beedrill at once, nothing more than a blur. It weaved in and out of the enemy lines, striking them in every weak spot, moving too fast for them to see even with their hive vision. Ethan stared in awe at a Scyther in the back as it took on its opponent, knocking it out and sending the body flying. He kept clicking the capture button, a hoard of pictures to stare at stored within the SD card in his camera.

Ethan saw the battle coming to an end, keeping an eye on the camera as he hit the capture switch the moment the Scizor raised a discolored Beedrill, the leader of the hive, on its claw, showing it to the world. Ethan's mind was numb with awe as he zipped away the camera and stands, shoving them into his bag and lowering himself down as the Scizor spoke to its subordinates. Ethan turned around, climbing down as Quiver leaped onto his shoulder, preparing itself to run away with Ethan in case they were spotted.

Ethan lowered himself carefully, still twenty feet above the ground when the branch he had been holding snapped, causing him to fall through the air right onto a Scyther. Sadly the bug reacted to fast.

It raised one bladed arm, cutting Ethan across the chest and knocking him to the side, thinking it was a Beedrill ambush, when it realized that it was a human. Quiver stared at the bug, as did its companions.

…

Two Days later…

Ethan opened his eyes, staring at a plain white ceiling with a fan rotating on it. Everything was slightly blurry. He tried to sit up but his head was bursting, as though the Scyther-Beedrill war was happening inside his skull.

He closed his eyes for a while, opening them again to see a clearer image of the same room, the pain in his head reduced to a dull throbbing in the background. He sat up slowly, examining the room around him. It was plain, with a simple décor. A few simple chairs, one bench, a TV, a fridge and a table. He looked to his left to see a drip connected to his left hand, and another to his chest. He examined the ruby contents of the second one, taking a while to realize it was blood. He looked down as he felt a pressure on his chest, noticing that Quiver had climbed up onto it.

He started as the door opened, Lucy and his mother walking in.

"Oh my god Ethan what happened!? What did you do!?" his mother cried, hugging him to death as he pointed to the drip which she was bending and stopping from providing blood.

"I don't know. Maybe the nurse knows. I remember falling from a tree in a forest. Is my bag here? I can show you what I was doing. You may disapprove, but I can show you." He replied, reaching out with one hand as Lucy picked up the thick backpack, handing it to him as he opened it, digging through it for his leather camera case, withdrawing it.

He opened the camera, checking the memory and flipping through it before taking out a long cable with an HDMI port at one end.

"Plug this in." he said slowly, handing Lucy the cable as she attached it to the TV, turning it on as Ethan plugged the other end into the camera. He pressed the switch, not going to the correct files for a moment and looking at his mother.

"Um… I found where the Scyther-Beedrill territory wars occurs here while I was camping last year. I was camping if you remember, around New Year, and I was searching for something and I chanced upon them at sunrise. I climbed into a tree and watched. The Scyther won. I managed to slip down and away, and they didn't notice me. If I had waited until they left, I would have been in the tree for two days." He began, slowly making his way to the correct photos.

"So I recorded it this year." He finished, flipping through the photos of the massacre, opening the video as Lucy and his mother stared at the screen, watching the Scyther slaughter the Beedrill.

"Enough… I did say you could go into the forest today… it's partially my fault. You take after your father too much. And I can't actually forbid you from going into the forest again because then you'll just go. And I can't stop your journey because that's your own right." His mother sighed.

"What happened was that a Scyther carried you here with a patch on your chest, made of leaves and sap. You were bleeding out. You nearly died. We gave you blood from the blood bank because you had lost too much for someone to donate, and besides, nobody in your family has your blood type; B negative; except your deceased father." A woman in a long coat explained, walking into the room as she picked up his file and read it.

"We had our resident Alakazam read the Scyther's mind. Or at least try. The fragments it got were that something fell and it attacked, thinking it was a Beedrill. And a tiny frenzy of searching for the hospital cross sign in the city." She continued, putting the file down and staring at him.

"You'll be good to go in another day or two. You lost more than a lot of blood. Be happy you're alive. You also have a broken rib by the way. Scyther's blades are very sharp." She finished staring at him. "Well. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"That I'm not stopping my journey. And that I may get a lot of money soon." He grinned, staring at the doctor who sighed exasperatedly, walking out.

…

Four days later…

Ethan walked along the river side path, staring at the mountain down the river. Quiver was next to him, heating up and melting the snow in his path as they walked. Ethan turned towards the city, watching smoke rise out of the chimneys as the midday sun rose to its peak. He could hear the waves getting stronger, and turning, he saw the whole tide of the river changing, his eyes wide as a Gyarados rose out of the water. Not a big one. Newly evolved, and around fifteen feet long, most of which was in the water. He stared at its open maw as its fang started to glow blue, the cold air weakening it drastically as it prepared to strike.

Out of nowhere, a green blur appeared, stabbing the Gyarados inside its mouth and out repeatedly, fending it off until it decided to leave, leaving Ethan's mouth agog. He focused as the green blur settled down to a Scyther, staring at him remorsefully.

"Are you the same one?" he asked, carefully, Quiver by his side with his hair standing up.

The bug nodded, tracing random things in the snow with one blade.

"Why are you here? Why aren't you marking your own territory within the forest?" Ethan asked cautiously, taking Quiver up in his arms.

The bug though for a moment, tracing what Ethan guessed were stick Pokémon into the snow, all except one on the left, one on the right, with a line between them.

"You were exiled?" he asked, feeling sympathy for the Pokémon as it nodded, staring at him.

"Why?" Ethan asked, moving closer to it as it became evident Scyther had no intention of doing anything. He was just wandering aimlessly, nowhere to go, nothing to do.

Scyther tried to trace it out in the snow, giving up and making rapid motions with its bladed arms as Ethan backed up to avoid another cut, unable to interpret them. Sighing, he tried to make up his own theory and see if he was right.

"You didn't want to hurt anyone, just claim your territory, so you were exiled because you caused collateral damage?" he asked unsurely, turning towards the forest.

Scyther contemplated his words for a moment before nodding as Ethan sympathized with it.

"Well it's not your fault." He remarked stoutly. "I was the one who fell. And I fell responsible for it. Besides, you're a cool dude."

Scyther smiled a bit, at least that's what Ethan thought it was.

"Hey listen. I'm going on a journey in six months. Through Johto, to become stronger and to take on the Indigo Conference at some point. I can use all the help I can get. Do you want to come with me?" he asked, hoping he wouldn't get killed in reply.

Scyther sat down on a rock, staring at him for a good quarter of an hour before nodding. Ethan grinned, reaching for the empty poke balls he had clipped next to Quiver's, only to find them missing, one empty Ultra Ball there with Quiver's.

' _Shit. I forgot to buy poke balls. Well… a strong Pokémon does deserve an Ultra Ball. And this'll make it faster.'_ He thought, unclipping it and tossing at Scyther.

The bug just sat there, letting it suck him in and capture him. Ethan held his breath as it wobbled for a second, clicking.

"YES! I HAVE A FRICKIN SCYTHER!"

…

Six Months Later, outside the Photon House…

"Scyther! Quiver! Blink Burn!" he shouted as Scyther set forward in a blur, running circles, quite literally, around the opposition, breaking into the circle and striking them every two seconds, leaving them in a daze, the opposition being a strange looking Pokémon he had been told was a Scraggy and a Skitty, the former from Unova and the latter from Hoenn.

The Quilava by his side nodded, gathering momentum and curling into a wheel as flames from his back encircled his entire body, breaking into Enemy territory as Scyther took a break from attacking relentlessly, jumping up to allow Quiver to strike the dazed Pokémon dead center, knocking them out.

Ethan raised his arms to the sky, wearing his a tightish half sleeved black V-neck, his jeans, his mask in his room on his desk considering the heat.

"That was fun. Don't worry about losing to a rookie. I've been training a lot. I plan on engraving my name in Johto history as the youngest champion ever." He remarked, pulling out his metal trainer tag. It was the new method of identification for trainers, pokedexes being extremely rare.

The Indigo Crest, made out of metal had a flat metal strip extending from it, with his name engraved in the upper left corner like a heading, the rest blank. He knew from one of his friend's siblings that when you got a badge, it was engraved into the metal card, underneath your name in case you ever lost the badge, in two rows of four. The whole thing was about as wide as a section of his pinkie, the crest extending beyond that a tiny bit, and as long as his index finger. The Indigo crest was divided into five sections with extremely thin risen borderlines between them. The upper left, upper right, lower left, lower right, and the centrally imposed section. The left divisions containing two connected black chips would have indicated his being from Kanto, the central division indicating Sevii, and the right panels which did contain the chips, indicated Johto.

Ethan smiled, it was his first real battle as a trainer, and shook the model's hand. He didn't actually remember which one she was. All he knew was that she wasn't one of Lucy's older friends or he would know her name at risk of dying by stiletto. Lucy had a pair with eight inch heels. He didn't really know why. 

He walked into the garden, blushing slightly and looking down as everyone started clapping for a moment. Everyone being all of Lucy's friends and some of his mother's and Lily's. He walked to the ice box, taking out a bottle of Cola and removing his pen knife from his pocket. He opened the bottle, raising his head and drinking as he noticed Lucy leading someone his way out of the corner of his eye.

He stopped, placing the bottle on the table behind him and swallowing as the cola nearly got stuck in his throat. Lucy was leading a young girl, around his age, towards him, around the five eight, blonde, slim with a curving figure and pale skin. She was wearing a pair of headphones with one side lit blue and the other red, and dangling wires coming down from them.

"Ethan, this is Elesa, one of my closest friends and best models." She said, introducing the two. "Elesa, this is my younger brother Ethan, Indigo Legend in the making."

Ethan was blank for a moment, smiling as soon as he could think and extending his hand.

"Ethan Photon." He could see why Lucy said she would be going places.

"Nice to meet you, Elesa Alaric." She replied, shaking his hand.

"I'm going. You two, talk." She stated threateningly as she left to go and talk to her mother who was staring at her from a table of her friends.

"Did you really just try to set your brother up?" she asked, turning towards her daughter as Lucy watched Ethan and Elesa converse, laughing for a minute.

"Yes. And one day he's going to thank me for it." She replied, raising her glass of champagne and drinking.

"Time to cut the cake." Her mother remarked, standing up and handing Lucy the cake knife.

Lucy nodded, heading over to the triple layered frosted cake her mother had made. The bane of her profession. But it was one day. Everyone gathered around, Ethan standing on her left with Lily and their mother on her right as she cut the cake.

…

Early the next morning…

Ethan stepped out of his house, walking away and waving to his mother as streaks of crimson gold light cast a shadow of the trees onto the ground.

"Just one more time. Why are you making me bypass routes 29, 30, 31 and Cherrygrove city?" he asked as she called out her Alakazam for teleportation.

"The Pokémon and trainers there tend to be weak. You wouldn't get any better, just waste time. These six months you trained here are the equivalent of the two week journey to Violet City. You're ready to face Falkner easily. And besides, there's a Tauros herd settling outside Cherrygrove. So I'm going to drop you off in Violet city, then head off myself. It's just a waste of your time. This way you may have a chance of getting to Chuck before this year's conference." Lucy replied, nodding in Alakazam's direction as they dematerialized, re-appearing in an old fashioned city.

Ethan tried to avoid stumbling, and failed horribly as he rematerialized in Violet City, taking in the old architecture and the beauty of the city at sunrise as Lucy hugged him once and disappeared again, off to the Indigo Teleportation Borders to leave for Unova.

Ethan sighed, walking through the city and looking for the bright red roof of the Pokémon center, unable to find it. He walked up to a local man sitting on a bench watching the birds fly over the lake between the city and Sprout Tower, their wings glinting in the golden light of the rising sun.

"Excuse me sir. Could you point me in the direction of the Pokémon center?" he asked as the old man turned around, his veteran's robe a sign of experience.

"Of course my lad. Just look for a dark, dark red roof. The color of blood just before it turns brown when clotting. Here in Violet city, Falkner and the city agreed that bright red stuck out from our heritage too much." He replied, patting Ethan on the shoulder.

"Thank you sir." Ethan nodded, turning around and walking through the streets searching for the Pokémon center, eventually stumbling upon it as the sun climbed higher into the sky, his watch showing six in the morning.

He walked inside, examining the room and waiting as a nurse talked to a young trainer standing at the counter. Once he was done, Ethan walked up to the counter, blinking momentarily, bleary eyed from lack of sleep.

"How may I help you sir?" she asked, smiling as Ethan read her name tag.

"Um… when does the gym open?" he asked, staring at the wounded Totodile being wheeled away on a stretcher.

"Eight in the morning, but Falkner is extremely annoying to battle then. He would have just completed a Zen workout, stretching his mind and developing new strategies to crush his opponents." She replied, sighing as she looked at him. "I'm assuming you want to challenge him?"

"Yep. Um… you guys have a cafeteria, right? What should I avoid feeding a Scyther and a Quilava before a battle, and in general." He asked, turning and reading the signs all over the walls about safety.

"Scyther… haven't seen one of those in a while." She remarked, thinking. "Don't feed Scyther too much sugar in general, but if you feed them sugar an hour or two before a battle, it could turn them from a blur you can see, to an invisible blur. In general avoid feeding them protein, at least not too much. A little bit is fine. As for Quilava… let's see… don't feed them peaches ever. They naturally hate them. It'll turn it against you. For health and safety be careful to feed it enough protein, and an ample amount of fats. It helps them grow. And don't skimp on carbohydrates though. Forget about fiber. Don't ever feed it to a Quilava. It'll make their eruption system queasy and extremely active. Feed your Scyther some though." She explained, turning towards him.

"Do you want a room for the night?" she asked, "We have a few ready."

"Nah. Just going to eat, try and beat Falkner and leave. Unless I can't beat him in this day, I'm heading off for Azalea." He replied. "Thanks."

He walked down the hall to the left, finding himself facing plain white push doors with small windows in them towards the center of the hall. He pushed one open entering to find not what he had expected. The cafeteria was more like an airport lounge, a good one. He walked up to what would have been the check in counter, scanning his trainer ID, his information showing up on a small screen next to it as he walked further. He walked into an empty section, putting his bag down on a chair and scanning his card on the door, marking it as occupied, releasing Scyther and Quiver next.

"I'm getting food for all of us. Chill out here until then. And make sure nothing happens to my bag." Ethan instructed them, smiling as Quiver stood to attention next to the massive rucksack and the duffel bag he had tied to the side.

He left, finding the counter for breakfast and examining the spread. He walked up and took a tray, loading it with three plates, loading each with food and heading back to his booth, pushing the door open and setting the tray down on the table. He moved the plates towards Quiver and Scyther, watching them examine the food before eating.

"Ofie Hiez." Ethan began through a mouthful of sausages and pancakes as Quiver and Scyther stared at him quizzically.

"Okay guys, sorry about that. We've got to take Falkner down and get a move on. Which, Scyther, is why you're eating waffles and pancakes covered in maple syrup and jam. Sugar. You're fast, and flying types are fast. They have the advantage of being able to venture out of your reach. Which is why I want you to be fast enough to jump high enough to pluck their feathers of and cut them open in the sky." Ethan explained, twisting his fork so it was covered with strands of meat.

"Quiver. You'll be up first. I want you to roast them. He has as far as I know, a Noctowl and a Pidgey. I don't know what will come first. I'm counting on you two. I really don't want to have to catch any more Pokémon. Especially since I keep forgetting to buy poke balls."

Quiver nodded, digging into his plate, his snout covered with maple syrup as he tried to paw it off. Ethan laughed, taking out his phone and taking a picture to send to his mother before picking Quiver up.

"We'll be right back Scyther." He said as the bug looked up, nodding once and continuing to eat.

Ethan took Quiver to the restrooms, entering the men's room and walking over to the sink. He turned the tap on, taking a hot towel from a basket for cleaning faces and rubbing it against Quiver's snout under the water as the syrup came off slowly, blow drying his fur and taking him right back to Scyther.

"Let's get going, it should be around seven thirty, and I don't know where the gym is. I should ask the nurse that." He stated as he picked up his bags, calling Quiver and Scyther back and walking out to the nurse.

"Which way is the gym, Nurse… Ariel is it?" he asked, smiling slightly.

"Simple, go left, walk until you see sprout Tower. Then wait until you see a man jump from the roof. Just follow him." She replied, laughing at what he assumed was an inside joke. Never the less, he hefted his bags over his shoulder and walked out, turning to the left and walking to the Sprout Tower.

He sat down on the bench, letting Quiver and Scyther out as he waited. The minutes ticked by as he tapped his foot impatiently, staring at the tower. He heard the clock inside chime eight, the bells ringing as a man in a robe leaped out of the tower with a Noctowl, opening the robe to let it work as a glider, maneuvering to the west. Ethan rose and sprinted in his direction following him as far as he could see before he crashed into a wall because he was looking up.

He fell to the floor, sitting there for a minute before pushing himself back onto his feet and brushing the dust off as Quiver and Scyther came into his field of vision. The building in front of him was the violet city Pokémon gym, an old building which looked like it had undergone renovation.

Ethan pushed open the glass doors, calling Scyther and Quiver back again to at least try for surprise. He entered to nearly fall down, backing up immediately as he saw no floor beyond a point made of wood. He was standing in the reception, and at the other end, there was a young man in a robe with a Noctowl on his shoulder, brushing his robe off, standing on a glass platform. There was no floor between them.

"I take it you will be my first victim today?" the man called out from the other end of the room. "I am Falkner, Gym Leader of Violet City, and who might you be?"

"Ethan Photon of New Bark Town. And it's not likely." He replied, slightly confused as Falkner's expression changed briefly, turning to one of surprise and admiration before changing back to0 his previous snide smirk.

"Well, Ethan Photon of New Bark, let us see if you can humble me. Can you Pokémon fly, or should I raise the minimalistic floor?" he asked, a mock smile on his face.

Ethan considered the situation briefly. Quiver would definitely need the floor, and though Scyther could make huge bounds and glide on drafts, they couldn't fly as they could when they became Scizor, and he would need more than just the walls to push him up, and besides, that would mean constant motion, which could be tiring.

"Floor." He called out, watching as Falkner nodded and pulled a remote out of his pocket, pressing a button.

Minimalistic was understating it. The floor that came up was a simple, thin, glass S around as wide as his head.

"This battle will be one on one!" Falkner called out from the other end of the room, catching Ethan off guard as he examined the man. Thick blue hair covered most of his face, falling down over the icy blue eyes and the pale skin. "Challenger release first."

"Good by me." Ethan replied, gritting his teeth as he picked an Ultra Ball and tossed it into the air, Scyther appearing on the field.

Falkner smiled, tossing out a poke ball and cursing as he realized he picked the wrong one. His Pidgey was on the field. Ethan smiled at the stroke of luck, thinking and speaking.

"Scyther! Invisi-blur!" he shouted as Scyther nodded, running down the curving floor and gathering momentum as he moved onto the walls, careful not to fall out of the open roof as he leapt across the room repeatedly, soon too fast to see.

"Now that I have never seen before. Pidgey, begin Evasive Twister!" he shouted in reply as his Pidgey chirped, flapping its wings and engulfing itself in a small twister barely bigger than it.

"Scyther, use the walls and show them what a real twister looks like!" Ethan shouted, praying that Scyther heard him and was now lapping the walls.

Pidgey was struggling, trying to maintain the maneuver, obviously not very powerful at this stage in the evolution chain as Ethan started to feel the wind swirling faster and faster and a proper twister appeared around Pidgey, slightly yellow, barely noticeable as it tossed Pidgey in every direction, thrashing the unfortunate Pokémon.

Scyther, at least he hoped, followed Pidgey into the sky as the twister dissipated, tossing the palm sized bird into the open sky. Scyther fizzled into view as his momentum slowed down, cutting Pidgey across the chest to be thrown back to the ground in a flash of light.

Ethan stared at the miniscule bird as it was enveloped in glowing white light, its silhouette growing and changing all the while. The envelope of light expanded, nearly blinding Ethan as he raised an arm over his face to protect his eyes.

The light settled slowly as Ethan squinted, staring at something he had never seen before, only in pictures; a Pidgeotto. Ethan stared at the magnificent bird's lustrous plumage as Scyther crashed into the floor next to him, getting back up immediately and beginning another relentless attack as Pidgeotto managed to evade more and more.

Ethan sighed, his confidence taking a great blow until he noticed what was happening. Pidgeotto was moving less, stopping more, struggling to fly as it froze altogether mid chirp, crashing into the floor.

Ethan stared in shock as he realized why the twister was tinted slightly yellow. Scyther had released stun spores into it. And with so many swirling all around the bird, naturally it had breathed in more than a few.

"That's enough!" Falkner called out as a beam of red light de-materialized the bird, calling it back. "You fought well. Come here and claim your badge."

Ethan recalled Scyther, walking across the narrow platform nervously as he made it to the other side. Falkner took his hand, pressing the badge into it. It was a light mint color, shaped like a hexagon with a line cut out of it from one of the points, those two cut sides stylized as wings.

"The Zephyr Badge. Yours. Pass me your ID." Falkner said, taking the metal tag and removing the nylon cord, placing it in an old fashioned wood and metal press. The walked onto a raised panel next to a stair block, waiting as he pushed it down with his weight, stepping of when it was at floor level. The machine had pressed into the tag, opening up again as Falkner stepped off the panel and handed him his ID.

Ethan examined it, staring at the engraved symbol, a depiction of the Zephyr badge, as he put it back on its cord, wearing it around his neck and tucking it under his shirt.

"I get the feeling that if you continue towards your goal with the devotion you show here, and take care of your Pokémon, you may be a living legend at some point, you could even become the champion. But then again, there's Will, Koga, Bruno, Karen and Lance in your way. Not to mention Red if you can even find him."

"Thanks." Ethan replied, shaking his hand and walking out of the gym, heading for the city borders as the sun rose to its peak position in the sky. Ethan checked his watch, the dial reading 11:48. The time had really flown by. Had the battle been that long?

Ethan reached the archway in the trees that indicated Violet City's borders, standing underneath it and staring out at the route that would take him to Azalea city, home of Bugsy, one of Johto's gym leaders, his second gym battle, and hopefully, his second gym badge.

"One badge down, seven to go." Ethan grinned, setting off.


	2. Rocket Reborn

**Chapter 2: Rocket Reborn**

 **A/N:** _ **So, I'm changing the name of this story AGAIN with the next chapter. Not major, just cutting the part 1: trainer out. I'm not going to write this story in segments, I've finally made up my mind, so enjoy.**_

 **Review replies:**

 **EightBitPixel: I made a mistake in the chapter regarding training and I edited it before anyone else read it, as soon as your message was relayed to me. There are twelve year old models for crying out loud, just chill out, and besides, Elesa is both a model and a gym leader at the time of the Unova Arc. So I made her a model who worked her way up to Gym Leader.**

 **Cedar-Wood Scyther: Thanks. I appreciate your faith, your follows, and your reviews. Please do recommend this story to other people.**

…

Ethan slipped on the wet rocks, nearly falling as Scyther stopped him with the back of one blade, Quiver keeping their surroundings lit up so that he could at least see where they were going. The damned cave was the last obstacle before he arrived at Azalea Town.

He cursed silently, holding onto Scyther's shoulder as he walked through the area, squinting as the rays of lights pierced through the cave. It had been five days since he had slept in a bed. He didn't mind roughing it, in fact he liked it. It was the unavailability of clean water at times to drink that had been the biggest problem.

He stumbled out of the exit, shielding his eyes with his right hand as the sun set in the area, walking down to the city through the downpour, the mud slippery and threatening to make him fall. He trudged through it, entering the canopied town of Azalea, the trees naturally growing over the small place. He forced his body to move towards the red roof, stepping through the open doors and walking to the counter slowly.

He recalled Scyther and Quiver and held both ultra-balls in one hand as the nurse turned towards him.

"Hi. We've been in the cave for the past three days. Could I get a room and some care for these two? We ran out of medicine two days ago." Ethan explained, his bones aching and his muscles screaming in protest even as he continued to stand.

"Of course. Scan your trainer card and the screen will show a room number. Just scan your card on the door as well to open it. We'll bring these two to your room as soon as they're ready." The nurse replied, taking both poke balls from him as he pulled the metal tag and nylon cord out, passing it over the reader and checking the room number.

He walked up slowly, each moment precise and deliberate so as to not waste what little energy he had. He found the room, 212, and scanned the tag again as it let him in, revealing as simple room, with a bed, a bathroom, a chair and poke ball receiver.

He sighed happily, ditching his bags and walking into the bathroom to shower. He removed his clothes, opening the shower for a burst of hot water, stepping in and slowly washing the grime of the past five days off as he contemplated his team.

He had a method of combatting grass types, bug types, ice types, steel types, dark and psychic types. He needed a way to fight more types. He thought for a minute, before adding ghost and fighting types to that list, considering that they would be in his way as gyms on the way to the Indigo Conference. Maybe a Misdreavus. They were common in the forests of Johto.

Ethan sighed, stepping out of the shower and drying off, wrapping the towel around himself as he pulled his night clothes out, half falling, half jumping onto the bed to sleep. He woke up a few minutes later as he heard a clicking noise. Then another.

He pulled his head up and looked around the room to find that both his ultra-balls were sitting in the poke ball receiver. He stood up slowly, walking unsteadily over to it and collecting them, going back to bed immediately as he found a note scribbled in the pad by the last tenant; DEAD MAUS.

Ethan frowned, racking his brain before he remembered that there was a band called that, except the S was a 5. He picked up the pen, scribbling something down and lying down, closing his eyes and falling asleep as dreams took over.

…

 _Ethan was standing on a platform, facing a waterfall as a magnificent beast rose from its slumber, white wings, and aerodynamic body and blue spike like protrusions surrounding its eyes as it roared at him, staring into his eyes as its own began to glow blue._

' _Child. You started off young, full of life, willing to endure pain, hardships, loss, and most of all the torture of time, to achieve your goals.' A voice sounded in Ethan's head as he nodded unconsciously, enraptured by the voice._

' _Now your home is in danger. You risk losing this world, everything you know, to the one you despise even as he tries to wake my sibling. Will you stand by the sidelines and watch, or will you step forward and become a legend?' it asked as the scene blurred out of existence, being replaced by one where a large rainbow colored burred with magnificent orange plumage and a golden crest screeched at him, its beak pointed at him as flames gathered in its mouth, a young man riding on top of it, long red hair and a black jacket visible with his sneer._

" _Destroy him!" the man shouted as the bird acknowledged the command, releasing rings of fire at him as he tried to move back, unable to do so as the fire approached, burning him._

…

Ethan woke up with a start, sitting in the Pokémon center bed. His pillow and shirt were drenched with his own sweat as he breathed heavily, trying to calm down. That had been one hell of a freaky dream. He sighed, checking his watch: eight in the morning, as good of a time as any to start his day.

He stepped out of bed and went to the shower, changing and washing up, heading out of the room with his Ultra Balls at hand. He made his way into the cafeteria, eating a hearty breakfast with Scyther and Quiver as he left, making his way around town to see what was going on.

He saw the opening of a well, and he could make out a young girl crying at the edge. He walked up to her, bending down and placing one hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, what's wrong? Why are you crying? Did someone hurt you?" he asked, nearly falling back as she hugged him suddenly.

"T-t-these m-m-mean-n p-p-peop-ple t-took my g-grandp-pa i-into the w-well." She stammered, crying as she let go of Ethan.

"Then I'll go and get him back. Don't worry." He stood up, smiling as the girl brushed her tears away, staring at him as he walked to the ladder, climbing down it slowly as the rungs creaked beneath him. He climbed down, standing quietly in the center of the well as he examined his surroundings, light streaming in from above.

There were caves connected to the well from the North, and he could hear voices coming from them. He walked with his back against the well walls to the opening and took a chance, peering in. Roaming about inside with dozens of Slowpoke cages and various blades, knives and even a guillotine or two, were men in black uniforms with a scarlet R on their chests, black caps covering their hair, the peaks casting shadows over their faces. Ethan ducked back and pressed himself flat against the wall as two of the men walked into the room, talking.

"So I say to the sly bastard, you can't come here and trick my wife into loaning you money we'll never get back from you! And then I tossed my Golbat onto his. You should have seen the cheapskate's face. Then again, there was a Golbat on it." One of them laughed as he turned around.

"HEY! What's a kid doing down here? You lost kiddo? Did you fall down the well?" one of them asked as Ethan nodded slowly, reaching for his ultra-balls which were conveniently on the back of his belt.

"Okay, let's help you onto the ladder." The other man said, turning towards the first man as they turned away for a second to move towards the ladder.

Ethan heaved a sigh of relief as Quiver body slammed the first man, knocking him out silently, clapping a paw over the other's mouth and repeatedly hitting him like a whack a mole. Quiver jumped to the floor as the second man collapsed again, returning to Ethan's side as he held his breath.

He reached for the other ultra-ball, letting Scyther out.

"Stun Spore the whole place." Ethan whispered as Scyther position the opening in its arm in the opening to the caves and slowly but surely golden powder spread into the air, assisted by Scyther's wings to go in the correct direction. A few minutes passed and soon Scyther stepped back as Ethan drew his mask over his mouth to prevent any spores from paralyzing him and called Quiver back. Quiver wasn't immune to Scyther's stun spore and he had no way of assuring that the spores didn't affect Quiver.

He walked into a cave full of frozen rocket grunts, making his way through it to the end where he could see two people holding cloths to their mouths. One in a standard Rocket Uniform, with white gloves going down to his elbows, and white boots, green hair, green eyes, and a permanent sneer. The other was about his age, red hair, a sneer, and a black jacket. The boy from his dream.

He walked through the cave as the one with green hair called out a Golbat, blowing away all the spores as he noticed the boy with a Scyther approaching, a mask drawn over his mouth as he trudged through the cave.

"What's a kid doing here?" the boy with red hair sneered, turning towards him.

"Just give me the little girl's grandfather, the man you took hostage, and I'll leave. I may report your little racket to the police, but I'll leave." Ethan replied as the man with green hair smirked at him.

"And what makes you think we'd do that?" He replied, holding his arm out as the Golbat flew back to him.

"Because if you don't, I'll kick your asses in a battle and then I will actually kick your asses, maybe even toss in a few harder hits to a place people like to keep safe to keep you writhing on the floor until the police arrive." Ethan replied, hoping that the charade he was putting on would work.

"Like hell. Do you even know who I am?" The man in the rocket suit asked, staring at Ethan with a look of disgust on his face.

Ethan gritted his teeth, racking his brain and trying to think. The scarlet R was the symbol of Team Rocket an organization disbanded by the current Indigo Champion Red, three years ago when he had been Ethan's age. Ethan tried to remember the news reports on it that he had sat in the lounge watching as a twelve year old. There were four people who wore white, the high ups. There was Petrol, or was it Petrel? This wasn't him, he was too tall. There was a woman, and there was another man, but he was a proper executive. He was Giovanni's number two. Ethan couldn't remember his name, but it wasn't him either because he had blue hair. There was one who was named after a subatomic particle. Was it Electron? No, too long. Neutron? No. So that left….

"You're Team Rocket Executive Proton. Arrested twice for abuse, in which manners I won't mention, before you joined team Rocket at the time of its founding. You, Petrel and two others were the original four underlings of Giovanni. I don't know who you are kid, but I know that I can stick to my earlier statement." Ethan replied, silently praying to Arceus that he hadn't mixed them up.

"So you did your homework during our last reign. Well, I'll enjoy decapitating you now. Someone who isn't engulfed in the darkness of ignorance like the rest of his region. Well… then again, they do say ignorance is bliss, so I can understand why Johto is still going about their normal business as if nothing has happened. Then again, nothing has happened yet has it?" Proton pondered, placing one hand on his chin and one foot on a rock, bending slightly and looking down.

"Oh make your bloody mind up!" Ethan shouted, tossing out Quiver's ultra-ball, the air now clear of spores as Scyther targeted the Golbat, a match of velocity, Proton's face twisting into a sneer.

"Koffing! Whip this runt's ass!" Proton replied, tossing another poke ball into the air as a large purple spherical Pokémon came out, each breath releasing noxious gases.

Ethan made sure that his mask was over his mouth and his nose as he shouted out to Scyther and Quiver.

"You want to strike with a whip? Then we'll take the whip from you and hit you with it! Reverse Maneuvers!" Ethan yelled across the room even as Koffing kept pumping out its gases, filling the air around it as they started to diffuse before Scyther disappeared in a blur, forming a twister around Koffing and trapping the gases inside as they affected Golbat, Koffing of course being immune to its own gases.

Ethan whipped out his phone while Proton was preoccupied battling him, texting as fast as he could to the one person he knew who would know the answer to the question, knowing he would reply in an instant, chewing his lip anxiously as the phone vibrated in his hand.

"Quiver! Get in there!" he shouted as the Quilava barked, curling up and catching fire as it rolled into the twister as the oxygenated air spread the fire quickly, causing Koffing to visibly sag from the heat.

Then the twister blew up as Scyther stepped out and backed up, pulling Quiver with him. The flames wouldn't have come in contact with the noxious, and extremely flammable gases if he had maintained the twister. The force of the wind would have kept the flames in the form of the twister, and kept the gases at bay.

When the dust cleared, Golbat was lying flat on the ground, unconscious, as was Koffing. Proton gritted his teeth, and surprisingly, smiled.

"Finally, a strong opponent! But then again, these aren't my primary Pokémon. Still, good for his age. Silver. Let's see you battle him. I have to give a report to the boss before he can decide your position."

The boy in black, Silver, sneered, stepping forward and releasing what Ethan knew was a Ghastly. But this one was different. Instead of being black with dark purple vapors like iodine around it, it was deep purple with bluish vapors. Different.

"Kill him you worthless trash heap!" Silver shouted as the Ghastly turned towards its trainer, taking Silver by surprise and turning into vapors, entering Silver through his nose and mouth, knocking him out before doing the same to Proton and turning towards him.

"Hey bro! I'm just here for a little girl's grandfather! I'm not going to do anything to you!" Ethan spurted out quickly, raising his palms as he walked towards the exit at the back slowly Scyther and Quiver keeping an eye on the ghost as he entered the back cavern, finding a man tied and gagged in the back. He reached for his gag, pulling it out and letting it fall as he could feel his own thoughts being pushed into a corner as an alien presence pushed its way into his mind, causing him to fall down, his head outside the cavern door where his Pokémon could see it. He couldn't do anything, but he could still see what was happening.

Scyther leaped up at the ghost, cutting through its body with one blade and landing to see that nothing had happened, surprised. Then Quiver let loose and intense stream of flames, causing the Ghastly to go up in vapors, the attack on his mind ceasing.

Ethan stood up and helped the man out as a voice sounded in his head, sounding somewhat embarrassed.

'You're a good person. You take care of you Pokémon?' it asked as Ethan nodded in the direction of the ghost.

'I don't know what that is like.' It continued, stopping and receding to talk to Quiver as the fire type stood on its hind legs momentarily, staring at the ghost before the voice came back to him.

'You want a ghost to join you.' It remarked, an air of purpose in its mental voice as it physically grinned.

'Don't tell me you want to come with me? Not after what the other idiot put you through. Don't you have a grudge against humans by now?' Ethan replied, surprised. The last abused Pokémon professor Elm had brought to the lab was a Totodile. Every time it saw a human, including the professor, it clasped its jaws around their legs. That went on for a good two months before it started to ease up. It had taken four years for it to become comfortable around humans. Now the Feraligatr was one of Elm's best companions. But that had taken four years.

'I have a grudge against the boy, against his companions. But not against humans. I talked to your… friends, as I see they are to you, and you to them. You seem like a good person. Why not?' it replied, turning towards him and cackling.

'If you can't last a day without screwing anything up, or possessing anyone who I don't tell you to for that matter, you can say goodbye to your chances of coming with me.' Ethan replied as the ghost nodded, following him as he brought the old man to Scyther.

"Bud, set him free will you?" he asked as he turned towards them.

"Ghastly will be with us for a day, and if we like him, he comes with us." Ethan told them as Scyther made quick work of the ropes, helping the man as they made for the ladder, staring at the police ring above them, guns pointed at them from above.

"SURRENDER NOW OR WE WILL SHOOT!" one man shouted through a megaphone until he noticed the little girl Ethan had talked to earlier tapping him on the shoulder and whispering in his ear.

"MY MISTAKE. WE WILL SEND DOWN A HITMONLEE FOR THE SENIOR CITIZEN. YOUNG MAN, CAN YOU CLIMB UP THE LADDER?" he shouted again as Ethan covered his ears with his hands, cringing at the volume of the sound.

"I CAN IF YOU CAN STOP SHOUTING DOWN A MEGAPHONE! YOU'RE MAKING MY EARS BLEED!" he shouted back, recalling Scyther and Quiver after rubbing the latter on the back and fist/blade-side bumping the former.

He grabbed a hold of the lower rungs, pulling himself up slowly as a Hitmonlee jumped down into the well, picking the old man up and carrying him up to the ground in one jump. He made it to the top, puling himself over the top as Ghastly followed him.

"Sir, is this your Ghastly?" one of the officers asked, raising a dart gun at it.

"Um… trial before capture, but shoot it anyways." Ethan replied mischievously, smiling as the man shrugged and shot a tranquilizer dart at the ghost, his mouth falling open as the dart passed through its body and buried itself in a tree.

"Sorry, I just thought you needed to know that physical attacks can't hurt ghosts. Your Taser might have worked if I had needed it though." Ethan remarked, slipping his hands into his pockets and staring at the man.

"Come with me kid. We're going to need an account of what happened." The senior officer said, putting one hand over Ethan's shoulder and steering him away.

…

"So you're saying that Team Rocket is back, and fully operational, with a new high-up?" the sheriff sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"How many times am I going to repeat myself!" Ethan replied, more than a bit pissed off at having being seated in the interrogation room, with his hands cuffed to the table after his first account.

"What proof do you have, other than the two people lying in the well, because we never found them." The cop replied, picking up his Taser and tossing it into the air, missing the catch as another voice came from down the hall.

"I can vouch for him." Professor Elm said, panting as he put his hands on his knees, bending down to catch his breath, a Totodile sticking its head out of his backpack, its body deep green. And Espeon appeared next to the professor presumably how he got to Azalea, and yet he was out of breath. Man he was out of shape.

"Sheriff I need to speak with him!" Elm panted as the man nodded, unlocking Ethan as he rubbed his wrists, walking away, Elm taking his place.

"I'm going to cut to the chase." Elm wheezed, placing both hands on the table. "This little guy's discoloration is too strong. I want to see if that affects him. And besides, Croconaw can be dangerous if they aren't trained properly, and I'm not much of a trainer."

Ethan raised an eyebrow at the last statement. "Didn't you rehabilitate a wild Totodile with a grudge into a Feraligatr?"

"That was mostly with your older sister's help." Elm replied, waving his hands in the air. "Anyway, take him and report to me."

"Professor, I have to worry about him keeping up with my team. I already have someone new to train." Ethan replied.

'Does this mean I'm coming with you?' Ghastly interjected as Ethan twitched.

'If you shut up right now, fine.' Ethan replied, turning back to Elm.'

"Don't worry about him being on par with your team, he's just about to evolve. We found him with a Nidoran herd near Cherrygrove a few days after he ran away, joining in their daily battles and training. And it paid off for him. He'll evolve within a day."

Elm picked up the docile Pokémon, handing him over to Ethan as it hugged him, staring up at him with its big eyes wide and its mouth open.

"Toto. Dile?" it asked, hugging him as Ethan smiled, reaching for a poke ball. He found only an ultra-ball, again, one of Lucy's gifts, and sighed, tapping the baby gator on the snout with it as it sucked him in, capturing him.

He looked down at his shirt, examining the small paint stain that Elm didn't notice.

"Thanks for getting me out anyways. And for the new Pokémon. I might need a water type at some point." He stood up, shaking Elm's hand as he turned around and tossed his other Ultra Ball at the Ghastly, capturing it as its eyes widened.

"That's for taking hold of my head." Ethan whispered to the ball as it clicked, signifying the ghosts capture. Ethan smiled, clipping it to his belt and walking out to the streets, breathing in the fresh air as he walked through the streets, until he felt a little girl pressing against his leg.

"Hey mister. My grandpa wants to talk to you!" she said, then Ethan realized she was the same little girl from earlier, nodding and following her to a house on the outskirts of the town, a few apricorn trees growing outside by a pile of logs.

The door opened and the same old man stepped back, though now he looked much better.

"Come in. My name is Kurt. Just Kurt. I make poke balls." He introduced himself as Ethan stepped inside, ducking to avoid hitting the door frame.

"Okay then. I'm Ethan Photon, trainer with a goal." Ethan replied, shaking Kurt's hand as his granddaughter closed the door.

"Thank you for saving me." Kurt said quietly as he brewed a kettle of tea, pouring a cup out for Ethan and one for himself.

"No problem." Ethan replied, turning towards the glass display cases and examining the custom poke balls.

"Do you want custom poke balls? I make them out of apricorns. Then I varnish them with more readily available materials." Kurt asked out of the blue, turning towards him. "Though any I make from now on will be using my new materials."

"I don't want any new ones thanks. People keep giving me Ultra Balls on every occasion." Ethan replied as a thought came to his head. "Actually, can you customize some of my Ultra balls?"

"What would you like done?" Kurt asked, getting straight to business.

"Could you redo the lines on them by type color? And could you make them luminous and iridescent?" Ethan asked, unclipping the four spheres.

"That's easy, I can have them for you in a few hours!" he replied, accepting the four ultra-balls as Ethan released his Pokémon out the window, gesturing for a minute to them.

"Do you have any way of telling which one belongs to which?" Ethan asked as the man put them down in his workshop.

"Yes, my machine scans them and tells me what Pokémon is stored in them. What do you want?" he asked, picking up a notepad.

"Well, I think the one with a Quilava in it should be Scarlet lined, the one with my Scyther should be forest green, the one with Ghastly deep purple, and the one with Totodile should be Cyan." Ethan said as Kurt noted it down and shooed him out.

Ethan sighed, walking with his Pokémon over to a small pond by Kurt's house.

"Bath time for all of you. I know you don't like water that much Quiver, but it's not even as deep as you if you stand on your hind legs." Ethan said as Quiver tentatively stepped into the pond, Totodile jumping in and swimming around as Scyther lay down in the water and floated around. Ghastly just floated around, mainly because he was made of vapors.

Ethan watched as the paint washed off of Totodile, revealing a perfectly normal and healthy Pokémon which was about to evolve. Ethan stepped back as an ever stone fell of Totodile's back, presumably hidden behind a fin, as it started glowing.

Ethan covered his eyes as the glow expanded, dying down after a while and revealing a Croconaw.

"Sweet." Ethan grinned as the Croconaw walked up to him, nuzzling his leg. Elm really didn't know what he was talking about regarding these ones. Or this one was just extremely docile.

'Seriously though guys, clean up now." Ethan remarked as they all started cleaning up, Ghastly even ducking through the water to clean itself. Though how that worked Ethan had no idea.

"So… Ghastly, do you want a name?" he asked, turning towards the Pokémon as the ghost nodded.

"Um… how about Specter?" he asked as the ghost cackled and nodded.

"Ok, for our new recruits, Croconaw and Specter, I'll give you a name when you evolve Croconaw, I have one that'll suit you as a Feraligatr, and you're part of the pack now. You harm one of us, or someone I care about, you're out. And Specter. If you possess me, you're out. My mind is my own sanctuary. Slowly I will accept your presence there. But not a big presence mind you." Ethan explained as he turned towards the house as the door opened.

Kurt's granddaughter exited carrying four Ultra balls, and walked over to him, giving them to him.

"How much?" Ethan asked, taking out the wallet in which he kept his winnings.

"Grandpa says this batch is free. After these ones you'll have to pay though. These are for saving him." She replied as he put his wallet away and called back his Pokémon.

"Tell him I say thanks. I'm going to go challenge the gym." Ethan said, as she nodded and walked back, he himself getting up and heading in the opposite direction. He examined the ultra-balls, transfixed on their glow and luster when he crashed into a tree. He straightened himself out, brushing his jacket off and walking on to the gym building. It was in the southern part of the town, a large emporium style building where the leader Bugsy displayed bug types he had caught.

Ethan walked inside, opening the door as he entered the dark room. He stood there, waiting as the lights didn't come on. He had the feeling that there was something behind him, but he couldn't tell what. He turned around slowly, trying to spot it when it jumped on him, pinning him against the floor and hissing.

The lights came on to reveal what Ethan thought was an Ariados, a large red arachnid, or rather spider, with yellow and black legs.

"Spindle! Off!" a voice sounded through the room as the bug leapt off Ethan's chest in the direction of the sound.

Ethan stood up slowly, brushing his shirt off and turning towards the voice. There was a woman standing there with a clipboard, the Ariados, Spindle, standing next to her. Ethan walked up to the counter as she slipped behind it, starting up her computer.

"Sorry, this bloody thing always takes ages to start up. I assume you're here to challenge Bugsy?" she asked, opening the schedule.

"Yep." Ethan replied, his hand steady over his belt as he waited for the man he knew as Bugsy to appear.

"Okay, go on through the web maze. Bugsy is at the end. You know the rules right?" she asked, turning towards him with a quizzical look.

"I do, but could you remind me once again?" Ethan asked, curious.

"Make your way through the maze. If a gym trainer sees you, you fight them. No turning back. Make your way to Bugsy using the spider mechanisms on the synthetic webs." She instructed, reading off the screen and shooing him in the direction of a line of trees at the back.

Ethan walked towards them, slipping through the gap in the middle and stopping in his tracks. He could see a massive trench in the floor, more like a pit, around ten meters by ten meters by ten meters. He started to sweat as he saw how he would cross it. There were thick ropes fixed between each of the ends, divided by trees, some of which had no tension at all, some of which did. And there were levers to control that. And there was a spider for him to stand on as it moved along a path he wouldn't understand.

Ethan held his breath, stepping onto the spider as it moved forward until the left branch, turning and moving forward. He froze as the spider didn't turn right again, realizing it was because of the slacked line. The spider just followed every twist and turn. Ethan nearly fell of as it docked on the partition in front of him. He stepped off to a cut off area, trees with no gaps around him and a red lever next to him.

Ethan examined the webs, noting which the red cords were and formulating a plan before he decided to tackle the actual maze. He wrapped both hands around the red lever and pulled, which moved the lever smoothly, tightening every red cord as far as he pulled it. Ethan stepped onto the spider as it carried him down, then to the left, to the central cord, then down and to the left again, which the correct way around was right and then right. He pulled to a stop at a section, stepping off and immediately being stopped by a little kid in a straw hat, white shorts and a blue shirt.

"I'm bug catcher Finicky. Fight me." The boy said.

Ethan smiled at the boy's name, but nodded never the less and readied himself to fight. He would have to save Quiver and Scyther, Scyther being the only one with speed to match his kin, for the endgame against Bugsy. He tossed out Specter's ultra-ball, the iridescent violet lines transfixing his gaze for a moment until the actual ghost formed.

The young kid threw out a little green spider, which if Ethan remembered correctly was a Spinarak. They evolved into Ariados. He gritted his teeth, thinking first. What did Specter even know?

'Hey. What do you know for moves? I can't exactly fight if I don't know.' Ethan remarked, having felt the tiny communicative touch of Specter's mind.

'I can put people to sleep. I can launch orbs of my own energy at them. I can launch a wave of telekinetic energy.' Specter replied, happy at the mental contact.

'So hypnosis, shadow ball and psychic. Good enough. Launch a shadow ball at this guy and see how tough he is.' Ethan replied, his golden eyes fixed on the young trainer as he shouted orders to his Spinarak.

The bug shot out web threads at Specter as the ghost sensibly avoided them, not revealing that physical attacks would do nothing anyway. An orb of ghostly energy, the same shade of violet as Specter's body, formed in front of him and he let it loose, striking the immobile Spinarak and knocking it back into the trees.

"My turf." The kid smirked, "Spinarak, String Shot and Bite, Poison it while you're at it."

The little bug chittered, launching a web through Specter and latching it onto the wall to its surprise, being flung through the air towards Specter, who immediately launched a psychic attack, knocking the bug back like it was on a bungee cord, as it once again rebounded due to the strong silken threads.

This time Specter launched a series of shadow balls at its face, not very strong ones, but consecutive, repeatedly knocking it back as it let the bug pass through its body, breathing in the poisonous vapors as it slammed into a wall, collapsing onto the ground.

"Guess I don't have to worry about you catching up as much as I thought I would." Ethan remarked as he recalled Specter, standing up and shaking the boy's hand before moving back to the blue lever. He pulled it as one cord slackened, the other tightening, giving him passage to the next level.

He stepped on the bug tentatively as it set off, nearly dropping him as it made its way to the end of the maze. He stepped off it sighing as he noticed the next web, much more intricate. Then a man brushed past him and he noticed the closed for renovation sign, go left written under it.

Ethan looked to the left, and spotting an open door, walked down it to find himself facing a door made of what looked like honey. He pushed the doors to no avail as the honey vibrated, his hand pushing into it and through it. Ethan stared at it before it clicked, and he pushed his entire body through the actual honey wall, falling out on the other side.

"Oh thank god, someone figured it out! Now I don't owe Marlene 4000 dollars." A springy voice came from the other end of the room.

Ethan stood up and looked forward to see a young man in a green safari uniform sitting in a tree juggling poke balls and one great ball.

"Okay then, scan your trainer id here, cause you forgot to do that at the entrance, and then we can fight, four on four." Bugsy said, still juggling the poke balls.

Ethan turned around, scanning his trainer ID chipset next to the door as the screens on their left lit up. The left one bore the words 'Ethan Photon vs. Bugsay BRUH! ;+D', the right one bore the health counters for the current Pokémon and the Pokémon count.

"How about six on four?" Ethan asked, as Bugsy turned towards the keyboard.

"Bloody Gengar, this thing keeps screwing with me!" he shouted, hitting the keyboard with his fist as he fixed it, the left display now reading 'Ethan Photon vs. Bugsy Watering-Hole Bagperson', "Sure, whatever you want."

"Commence!" Bugsy shouted as he tossed out the great ball first, revealing a Scyther.

Ethan reached for Quiver's ultra-ball, but Scyther's was shaking and was about to fall of his belt so he picked it instead.

"You have a Scyther?" Bugsy asked as Ethan nodded. "First match up is Scyther vs. Scyther, honor battle, no orders from us."

Ethan shrugged in reply and tossed out Scyther, the bug appearing in battle position on the field. He stood back as Bugsy whistled for the battle to start and stepped back, watching as the two Scyther's let all hell (of their level of course) loose, attacking each other with blades, heads, wings, legs, everything. Ethan stared at it, never having seen as swift of a battle as this, nor this much dedication to the cause of victory from both sides. Ethan sighed, settling against the wall as Bugsy walked to him and sat down.

"Magnificent, isn't it? It's already been going on for half an hour." he remarked dreamily as Ethan snapped towards him, checking his watch. It had been two hours since he had entered the gym.

"Damn." Ethan replied simply, turning back towards the battle, taking his phone out and recording bits and pieces of the duel, generally when it looked like he was about to gain the upper hand.

He pulled his hoodie off, the air in the room getting warmer. He remembered the strap on his arm as he examined it. It was a medical band, made of metal with a blue diamond in it, the words Anemia and B- engraved in it after his name.

He sat there staring at the two Scyther's have it out on the battle field for around and hour when one of them struck the other under the chin with a blade and sent it flying to the other side of the room, knocking it out before collapsing as well.

Ethan raised his Ultra Ball, sighing as he noted that he had still lost the first matchup, when the beam of red light sucked in the victorious Scyther.

"Damn. You fought well. You should be proud." Ethan whispered to the Ultra-Ball, readying his next one, Croconaw's ball. It would put him at a disadvantage, but he didn't mind that.

He tossed out the ball as Bugsy did the same, letting Croconaw and a Butterfree out.

"Croconaw, I explained maneuver trap shot to you right?" Ethan asked, his muscles tense as the gator moved its snout up and down.

"Well then let's engage it!" He finished as Butterfree soared through the air at Croconaw, who promptly stepped to one side and clamped its jaws around the butterfly Pokémon, releasing jets of water at it while it was stuck there four or five times before letting it go.

"There you go. Butterfree, silver wind!" Bugsy shouted as it fluttered away weakly, flapping its wings and releasing silvery powder into the air as it impacted against Croconaw, its tough hide protecting it from most of the damage.

"Croconaw, bite then trap shot again!" Ethan shouted as the gator bit into the butterfly, clamping its jaws shut and holding it in place as it once again shot jets of water at the bug, knocking it out slowly.

Croconaw sagged momentarily, more than a little bit tired, and poisoned as Ethan realized. Nothing lethal, just enough to slowly knock it out. The only Pokémon that could kill using poison would be the Nidoking/Queen line.

Bugsy tossed out a Beedrill, the rapidly moving Pokémon suddenly attacking Croconaw.

"BITE IT!" Ethan shouted as Croconaw complied, trapping one side of the bee Pokémon's body, the other side jabbing Croconaw with the drills until it fainted.

Ethan recalled Croconaw, whispering to the ultra-ball as he clipped it to his belt and reached for another, this time bringing Specter out as the ball of ghostly vapors chuckled.

"I don't really know what to do, so just do what you need to do." Ethan sighed as the ghost did a back flip, floating over to the Beedrill and entering through its nostrils to infiltrate and knock it out as the bug Pokémon writhed momentarily, dancing like a puppet before collapsing as vapors exploded out of it. That had never happened before.

Ethan stared at it as a clawed hand emerged from the Beedrill. Specter had evolved. Then it collapsed. Ethan sighed, calling Specter back as the bug type disappeared in a flash of pink light to match his scarlet. Ethan pressed the last ultra-ball against his forehead momentarily as the button was pressed, turning it around and releasing it onto the field as Quiver yawned, surprised as flames exited its maw.

He looked up lazily to see a large red spider, quiet like that one from earlier, an Ariados.

"Burn it and get back!" Ethan shouted as Quiver used a new move, lava erupting from his back as it fell onto the Ariados, burning it severely as it wriggled out of the spray and then glared at Quiver yawned again, the bug in its line of fire this time. A minute later, Ariados was recalled for too many burns collapsing. Ethan grinned from tooth to tooth. Quiver had picked up Lava Plume.

Ethan sighed as Bugsy released his next Pokémon, a large white ball.

"Cascoon! Kill that fire type!" Bugsy shouted as Ethan pressed one hand against his face, the irony of that statement evident. Cascoon was the Pokémon that could do nothing except harden. And it was immobile as well.

"Quiver, do what you will." Ethan remarked as Quiver walked up to Cascoon, raising its hind leg and preparing itself to use the restroom.

"Okay, not that. I meant knock him out!" Ethan shouted as Quiver seemed to laugh, lowering its leg and lying on top of Cascoon, flames exiting its back.

"That was fine. See I never really give you liberty to do that on your opponents." Ethan remarked as Bugsy tossed forward a purple ball, with two bump like protrusions on it; a master ball; how the hell did Bugsy get that!? They cost over three million dollars!?

A large purple Pokémon with a black belly appeared, angry looking with two large horns on its head; the megapede Pokémon, Scolipede.

"Oh shit!" Ethan exclaimed as he stared at the eight foot two bug, its eyes locking onto his as he gave him a death stare.

"You're not at as much of a disadvantage as you think you are." Bugsy sighed, binding his hands as he shouted an order to the megapede Pokémon.

"Use horn attack!" Bugsy shouted as the Pokémon turned towards him and walked up to him, turning around and defecating on him.

"You see." Bugsy deadpanned as Ethan failed to hold back a laugh.

"Just take the badge before Scolipede does the same to you." Bugsy raised and arm to brush off the bug faeces.

Ethan nodded, recalling Quiver and walked to the counter, taking the badge and setting his trainer ID in the machine and walking onto it. He stepped off, removing his tag and slinging it around his neck again as he examined the engraved badge in it, smiling as he raised one arm in salutation and left, leaving Bugsy to deal with his rampant Scolipede.

He walked out the door, sighing as the cool night air shifted his hair, stopping and staring at the stars. He turned towards the Pokémon center, reaching for a poke ball as something knocked him down.

"Again!?" Ethan shouted as he stood up, helping a man in karate robes up.

"You have to help me!" the man began.

"What's wrong?" Ethan asked, immediately serious.

"I know it sounds farfetched, but I lost a FarFetch'd."

"Brilliant, I'll meet you at the forest." Ethan replied hastily as he noted someone with red hair and a black jacket walking by.

Ethan ran up to the boy, placing one hand on his shoulder as the red head lashed out and tried to punch him in the face as he ducked.

"Hey! Who the hell are you?" Ethan confronted him as the boy sneered in reply, reaching for a poke ball and enlarging it.

"If you're really that desperate to know, my name is Silver Verdean, son of Giovanni Verdean, leader of Team Rocket. Know this, Team Rocket will come back with our leader at our head, Reborn."


	3. Can't Catch A Break Around Here

**Chapter 3: Can't Catch A Break Around Here**

 **A/N: Sorry about taking so long, I injured one of my fingers badly and was instructed to not use it for more than a while, so typing has been ludicrously slow. Anyway, here's the next chapter, with the name change to Tale of a Legend.**

 **Review Replies:**

 **Zierre: Thanks for reading, thanks for reviewing, please keep doing so. Thanks for your comments, I'll try my best to add more dialogue whenever he isn't alone. On a side note, dialogue will always be a separate paragraph except for the sentence extending from it or leading to it. It's just more appropriate format wise. But still, thanks. Keep reviewing, Alfa19**

…

Four days later, deep inside Ilex Forest…

Ethan swore under his breath as he tripped over the roots of another tree, unable to see properly in the perpetual darkness caused by the thick canopy of overgrowth, trying to navigate the forest without enough light.

"Screw the fire hazard!" Ethan said to himself as he reached for the ultra-ball on his belt with glowing red lines with a kaleidoscopic effect like lava, tossing it out as Quiver formed out of red light, taking the stage.

"Hey buddy, can you give me some light without setting fire to anything?" Ethan bent down closer to Quiver as the fire type nodded, small flames coming to life all over its back.

"Thanks." Ethan smiled slightly as he walked through the forest, now able to see what he had been tripping over constantly. The roots of trees had sprung up everywhere and they were tripping him up as he walked, not to mention the thousands of extended branches getting in his way and the piles of sticks all over the ground.

The undergrowth was thick in the area, the canopy of trees so tightly woven that there was barely enough light to see his hands in front of him.

"So Quiver, what do you suppose waits for us in the next gym in the circuit?" Ethan asked, aware that he wouldn't be able to understand Quiver's reply.

Quiver made a noise which sounded more like a growl and a purr blended together than anything else as he rubbed the side of his body that wasn't on fire against Ethan's leg momentarily.

"Okay then. Let's just keep going." Ethan replied, moving forward and following the paths in the trees until he reached a clearing.

The canopy of trees had opened up and moonlight flooded the clearing, illuminating the small shrine in the middle of the clearing, more like a large wooden bird house raised on four legs to about his head height. He stopped and stood silently as Quiver let the flames die out, staring at the shrine, the area silent.

Ethan was about to walk up to the shrine when he felt a breeze blowing. He heard a small growl of recognition from Quiver, who had dipped his head in respect. Ethan froze, unsure of what was about to happen as he closed his eyes momentarily, and when he opened them again, he could see various people, completely oblivious to the presence of anyone but themselves and the Pokémon with them. He stood and watched as they walked through each other, the forms ghostlike, and walked towards the shrine, visibly feeling the same breeze as he did.

He stood there for a moment, watching and listening as the ghostly apparitions talked to themselves and their Pokémon, eventually moving away from the shrine. He closed his eyes again and opened them, and the apparitions were gone, no trace of their presence left.

"That was just outright freaky." Ethan shuddered, rubbing one shoulder and pulling his mask up. "I don't want to breathe in any more of whatever weird spore this place is filled with. Come on buddy, let's split."

Quiver growled in agreement as Ethan slowly made his way around the shrine to the other opening in the trees near the clearing, in the direction he had wanted to go. He reached the opening, looking behind him and sprinting through, stopping a minute later as Quiver nuzzled his leg to indicate they were far away enough.

The flames on Quiver's back were present again as they walked through the now lit up darkness, trying to find their way out of the seemingly endless forest. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath when he noticed what was around him.

He stopped moving altogether as his eyes followed the millions of webs around them to find a colony of sleeping Ariados sitting at their ends. He reached slowly and deliberately for Scyther's ultra-ball, letting the bug out and holding a hand up in a plea for silence as the bug Pokémon took in the Ariados webs around him, its eyes narrowing as it looked back at Ethan.

Ethan bent down, drawing in the soft soil with his finger as Scyther leaned down to see the crude drawing of it cutting a portion of the webs for their escape.

Scyther examined the crude images, standing up slowly and moving towards the other side of the webs, where an intricate system of webs was blocking the exit. It moved towards them, raising an arm and slipping it through a gap in the webs, slowly and carefully pushing the blade down to make part of the blockage fall like a flap, slipping it arm through another gap and repeating the process.

Ethan smiled, and tried to walk through the gap slowly, making his way out as he nearly fell through the gap in the web. He stood up and tried to move forward wanting to swear when he realized a web had caught hold of his back and he couldn't move further. Scyther moved towards the web, cutting it and letting the string fall without realizing where it was headed. Ethan turned around as he saw the web pass over Quilava's ever flaming head and catch fire, the whole web network going up in flames as dozens of yellow eyes appeared behind the flames, staring at him.

"Oh shit." Ethan swore as he heard a horrible screeching noise, the entire Ariados colony jumping out of the trees and scuttling after him as he broke out into a sprint, trying to save his hide, his Pokémon in front of him.

He fell down and tripped over another root, not paying attention to the path as an Ariados landed on him, trying to bite his neck as Scyther knocked it off, cutting into its side as the Quiver set fire to the webs they kept shooting off. He scrambled back, reaching for his belt for his other two Pokémon as Quiver and Scyther were both beaten back by the sheer number of wild Pokémon waiting for them.

He tossed both his other Pokémon out as Croconaw and Specter formed in front of him, staring at the opposition before attacking. He watched as his Pokémon held the Ariados at bay, neither side having a distinct advantage, the battle in a position to go on for more than a while.

There was a loud explosion and he saw the corpse of an Ariados lying on the ground, Quiver thrown back against a tree, bleeding and breathing. Ethan cried out in horror, standing up and rushing an Ariados pointlessly as he did surprise it though, punching it between its pincers and getting thrown back twenty meters against a tree as he could see the Ariados pack closing in on him to feast, his Pokémon lying in various places all around, weakly trying to move. He sighed, accepting his fate, knowing that he would try to reject it the moment he was bitten when he was blinded by a brilliant flash.

He tried to raise and arm to cover his eyes, failing to do so when fire filled his vision. The Ariados were burning, something biting them and scratching and basically wrecking them as they tried to flee to no avail. He closed his eyes and opened to see a wounded Typhlosion standing over him, the desire to save him providing the energy needed for evolution.

"Quiver?" Ethan mumbled his throat hoarse as the great beast lay down by his side, too weak after the battle to carry him away.

…

Six hours later…

Ethan groaned, his back aching as he slowly sat up, his Pokémon gathered around him, asleep. He reached for their ultra-balls, recalling all of them and trying to stand up. He didn't succeed, falling back down and holding onto a tree.

He looked around and saw around a dozen Ariados lying on the ground in various places, unconscious.

"There were definitely more than that. They probably scuttled away. I should get out before they wake up anyway." Ethan murmured to himself, letting Quiver out and leaning against him as they slowly made their way to the exit of the forest nearby.

Ethan squinted as he walked onto the open road, daylight something he wasn't accustomed to any more.

He covered his eyes with his arm and stumbled forward, moving around slowly and leaning on Quiver for support.

He hobbled forward, trainers, deciding not to challenge him since he was; a) walking around with a Typhlosion, b) leaning on it for support. At some point, another trainer carrying a poke ball that was green from the top with net like designs on it ran by straight to the house near the entrance to Goldenrod and went in.

He walked slowly down the dirt road noting the house near the entrance to Goldenrod city and making up his mind to ask the people there if he could use their bathroom and check to see if he had any wounds that would need attention in the city.

He walked up to the house, realizing it wasn't a proper house when he saw the Pokémon daycare sign and the old man standing outside. He walked to the man and stopped.

"Excuse me sir, do you have a restroom I could use?" he asked quietly as the old man smiled kindly and ushered him in.

He walked into the building, seeing a small room with a counter halfway through it, an old woman standing behind it. To the right the wall turned and there was a small grassy area where small Pokémon were playing about. His eyes widened as he noticed an Ariados staring at him. He could have sworn it was one of the Ariados that had attacked him.

His muscles tensed, sending a spasm of pain through his body as the bug leaped at him, trying to bite him as the old man released a large metal beast, grey armor in place of its hide with a white head, two sharp horns protruding from it, its noise a perfect point for spearing things.

The impact of the Ariados's blow had sent him back, spasms of pain greater than anything he had ever felt before coursing through his body. He cried out as the metal beast picked up the bug, tossing it behind the fence separating the pen and the room before picking him up and carrying him to the counter as reality faded away again.

He woke up later, lying on a small table without his shirt, his pant legs rolled up, someone applying medicine to what he guessed were his wounds.

"Ethan, what happened to you!?" a young girl shouted as he regained his senses realizing who it was.

"Brilliant. Lyra? Why the hell are you treating my wounds? Come to think of it, why the hell are you here?" Ethan growled

"I'm staying with my grandparents for a little while! They run the daycare center! Now tell me what the hell happened to you!?" she shouted, her voice echoing in his ears.

"Ariados colony in the forest, webs caught fire. They attacked." Ethan coughed, sitting up slowly as Lyra put away the medicines she was applying slowly.

"Where are my Pokémon?" He asked, reaching for his shirt as Lyra smacked his arm, deterring him from it.

"No shirt for now mister. The medicine heals wounds fast, but it burns through anything else." Lyra instructed him.

"Aww. You probably just want to keep me here without my shirt." Ethan teased her as her cheeks went a brilliant shade of scarlet.

"ARGHH! YOU STUPID, CUTE, IDIOT!" she shouted.

"There! You just admitted that you think I'm cute, therefore you would have wanted to see me without my shirt on! Arceus knows what else you decided you wanted to see while I was out cold!" Ethan sat up, examining his wounds through the tranlucentish white paste covering them. Mostly transparent, but slightly translucent.

His back had welts and bites all over it from the bug Pokémon's legs and well, their, bites, and his legs were bruised in patches, as well as his shoulder blades when he looked in the mirror. His neck had three large white bandage like patches taped to it, treating what he assumed were severe bites, and his chest had more than a few welts and bruises. His forearms were covered in bites, scratches and scrapes as well, both hurting less than they should have. He assumed it was the medicine that had been applied to them.

The old man walked in through the door, staring at them.

"So you two do know each other. Lyra, why won't you introduce us to your friend here?" he laughed as Lyra gave Ethan a final death stare, turning back to the man who Ethan assumed was her grandfather now.

"Grandad, this is Ethan Photon, a kid from New Bark Town. We know each other, that's pretty much it." Lyra explained to her grandfather as the man nodded, turning towards Ethan.

"You may need to wear a different shirt when you leave kiddo." The man said, pointing towards Ethan's shirt, which he now realized had a couple of dozen holes in it, not to mention the tears and rips in the fabric.

Ethan sighed, picking it up and rolling it into a ball as he reached in his bag for a fresh shirt, taking one out and putting it down.

"We're going to inject you with some sleeping solution from a Bulbasuar so you'll sleep until the medicine is absorbed and you can put on your shirt and leave. Should be about three hours. We can show you the reserve after that, but that's about it.

"Okay then." Ethan sighed as Lyra took out a vial of purplish powder, mixing it with water and pouring it into a burette marked in hours. He squinted to see three hours on the burette as he glanced at the clock on the wall.

So he would wake up around eleven in the morning. His eyes widened slightly as Lyra loaded the liquid into a syringe the size of his arm, the needle as long as it, and positioned it over his arm.

"What in the unholy name of Darkrai Lyra!" he shouted, trying to back up slightly as Lyra laughed for a moment, loading the liquid into a standard syringe and injecting him.

"Sweet dreams." The words slurred in Ethan's mind and her voice became extremely deep as the Bulbasaur's concoction took effect and thoroughly knocked him out, sending him into a deep slumber from which he would awaken in three hours.

Figures started to form in Ethan's mind, a large white bird bigger than professor Elm's entire laboratory, bigger than the Golden Rod Radio Tower as far as he could tell, with blue streaks and highlighting all along its body, and another the same size, more in the shape of a phoenix with magnificent reddish orange plumage, the ends of its wings changing into rainbow colors and a white underbelly.

He could see a battle going on, the world fighting to survive as the two titans went all out against each other, leveling cities with stray attacks, cutting the ground open with their wingtips as they tilted to bank to either side, flames erupting from the beak of one, scorching the shining white plumage of the other as the seas rose, canons of water forming in the white bird's maw and firing off at the orange one.

...

Ethan woke up with a start, noting that most of the minor injuries were missing and the larger ones had shrunken, and the medicine was missing, though he was still sore all over.

He stood up slowly, taking the shirt he had set down earlier and wearing it, noting that he was alone. He walked out of the room, taking his ultra-balls out of the heal mech and clipping them to his belt.

Standing behind the counter with her back towards him was the woman he had seen earlier, dealing with a customer. The man handed her two poke balls and then left, walking out of the building disappearing form Ethan's line of sight.

"Why hello there son!" the woman greeted him, turning around.

"Hello." Ethan replied shortly, opening the door to the other side of the counter and stepping out.

"That Ariados is in solitary confinement until it learns not to do that." The woman replied.

"Um… you shouldn't do that to it. It's partly my fault that I was attacked. My Quilava sort of accidentally set fire to the colony's nest in the outskirts of the forest. I'm assuming someone found one of the weakened Ariados fleeing and caught it. It then attacked me because my Quilava, well my Typhlosion now, evolved and burnt the whole colony until they either escaped or they were knocked out." Ethan explained, leaning against the counter.

"Well in that case, LYRA! GET THE BUG OUT OF THE CONFINEMENT GREENHOUSE!" she shouted, deafening Ethan as he raised his hands to cover his ears.

"Now then dear, would you like to see some of the Pokémon we have here? Maybe a tour of the daycare? If your Pokémon could stop the Ariados colony, you'll be plenty safe." The woman offered as Ethan mumbled yes.

"Jedidiah! Show the kid around!" the woman once again called out as the old man shouted back something ineligible and walked into the room, unlatching the gate and ushering Ethan inside to show him around before closing and locking the gate again.

"Now, I'm assuming you'd like to see powerful and rare Pokémon?" the old man chuckled, releasing a large sleek, slim minimalistic bird with a metal body, a Skarmory, native to some parts of Johto, extremely rare, and extremely hard to catch, or fight.

Ethan let out a low whistle, staring at the massive bird as the man chuckled, gesturing towards the pond.

"Take a look when the surface starts to bubble." He stated and Ethan fixed his gaze on the water, waiting patiently as the water slowly began to bubble, indicating a water Pokémon letting out air as it prepared to switch from gills to lungs upon surfacing.

Ethan stared at the pool a he was suddenly hit by a spray of water and out of the water burst a large blue and white serpent with its maw permanently fixed open, easily over fifty feet long The gargantuan Pokémon had a three spiked greenish blue crown over its head, two long blue whiskers trailing from its face.

"Beauty of a Gyarados, isn't he?" the man chuckled as Ethan's face went white as a sheet.

"Calm down Soapsun! Just a visitor."

Ethan regained his composure as he examined, Soapsun, as the owner had deemed fit to name him.

"Come along now!" the man said, hurrying forward at an incredible pace for his age. Ethan ran to catch up to him, following him through the open area to the forest and through it to the river. The river itself was not very wide, just wide enough that he would have to use a Pokémon to get across, and moving at a decent pace. He stopped as he noticed the edges of the river were lined with huge chunks of ore with silvery metal gleaming in the sunlight as the metal inside the rock reflected the sun.

"Iron ore." The old man whispered. "It's about lunch time, so it should be here soon."

Ethan nodded, excited as he crouched down behind a bush and waited silently as he heard a deep, deafening, metallic roar. He watched in awe as a hulking eight foot beast with a body that looked as though it was made of iron armor. Huge plates and folds of grey metal covered its hide and its tail, some white mixed in, such as its head which was shaped like a slice of cake, made of metal, with a jaw cut into it, the jagged metal teeth perfectly aligning, and what looked like a samurai helmet adorned on its head, the folds of the metal plating coming down on either side of its head, and instead of ending in a round cap to the head, because the Pokémon's actual head, or well at least part of it, was shaped like a triangle, it became symmetrical like a tetrahedron lying flat on one of its three faces, a right angles tetrahedron, with two equally sized upper sides from which near the area where the curve became symmetrical, protruded two thin, long conical horns.

"Arceus what is that thing?" Ethan whispered under his breath as he whipped out his phone, taking a picture of the Pokémon and sending it off to the same person he had sent the question to earlier.

He stared at his screen as the man remained silent, watching the beast. He covered the speaker with his hand as the message icon appeared, opening the message itself.

'Aggron, the iron armor Pokémon. Powerful as hell, grows from a cute little thing called Aron. Eats iron, or iron ore. Marks caves, tunnels, mineshaft, even mountains, (Actually more commonly mountains) with iron in them as its territory. Why the fish is it in Johto!? Lucky son of a magikarp! Send me pics if you can get up close.'

Ethan looked up to see that it was indeed eating the huge chunks of iron ore, which seemed to be the reason it was at the river in the first place.

"Got this one from a personal collector. He wants to enter the battle frontier over in Hoenn and he said he needed some powerful Pokémon to do that. So he sent us his Aron to raise, after of course raising it enough himself that it harbors the amount of affection that should exist between trainer and Pokémon for him." The man rambled on as Ethan stepped out from the bush, unconsciously moving towards the metal beast.

"Guardian! It's me!" the man called out, hurriedly hobbling over to the Aggron and putting one hand on Ethan's shoulder, his grip like iron.

"Ethan here is a friend. He was hurt by wild Ariados. We don't want to hurt him, right?" the man went on as the Aggron set down a piece of ore it was about to eat, nodding.

"That's good. Ethan, meet Guardian, one of the most powerful Pokémon that exists in this area."

"Nice to meet you Guardian." Ethan smiled slowly as he tried to reach up and pet the Aggron on the shoulder, barely reaching it.

The metal beast let loose a happy roar and sat down, continuing to eat as Ethan ran a hand along its back, examining its metal body.

"Amazing." He muttered under his breath before he noticed the old man walking away.

"Come along now, if I'm showing you the zone, there are a lot of Pokémon you'd be interested in."

"Thanks for all this, Mr.…. Lyra's grandfather." Ethan laughed weakly at the last part of his statement as the old man led him further into the forest, the shadow of Skarmory passed over them repeatedly, the metal bird circling the sky above them and keeping watch.

"Okay, last one for today, and hopefully this will inspire you to train one of these, because they are extremely loyal." The old man remarked as he led him towards a huge cliff inside the area of the Safari zone as the ground trembled and a large winged shadow closed in from above.

Ethan stepped back as a large ten foot tall orange dragon flew out from over the cliff and landed in front of them, folding its leathery green wings which seemed tiny in comparison to its massive body. it reached out with one thick arm and held its tiny hand out, the claws on the edges constituting for fingers as it stood there waiting before it realized it was doing something wrong.

It struggled to squat down lower before extending its arm again, and this time Ethan shrugged and shook it, now able to reach the actual hand. The dragon smiled and gurgled happily as it sat down, watching the two humans contentedly.

"This lady, is a Dragonite! One of the rare dragon type Pokémon, and extremely powerful as well. In the wild they're normally docile, unlike many dragon types, and they're always friendly." The old man explained as he glanced at his watch.

"Well, we had better get going. Do you want me to take you through a shortcut to the sides of Goldenrod city?" he asked as Ethan mulled it over then nodded.

"Skarmory! Take him to Goldenrod!" he hollered at the top of his lungs as dread filled Ethan when he realized what was about to happen and silently lifted his arms.

Skarmory's shadow swooped down from above and its talons wrapped around Ethan's raised arms, not cutting into him or pinching him as it carried him low, barely over the trees, towards the city, dropping the boy in a small, nice, back area of the town to which access was secluded.

Ethan let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, shaking slightly as he examined where he was.

"Never again. At least, not like that!" he shuddered as he saw a bored looking man standing outside the bike shop in front of him, locking a sleek emerald, black and gold bike as he opened the door to the shop.

"Hey mister!" Ethan called out as the man froze, turning around, uncertain whether he was being addressed as he saw a young man running towards him.

"How much for the bike you just locked outside?" Ethan asked, reaching for his wallet.

"Oh my god! You're the first one to have wanted a bike in sixteen years! I've just been selling inflatable tubes since then! For that you can have it for free! Ride it around town and show people what amazing bikes I make!" the man exclaimed with a glint in his eyes that made Ethan slightly uncomfortable as he tossed him a key.

Ethan leaned forward, missing the catch and picking it up from the floor as he walked outside to unlock it. He opened the padlock, fitting it into his bag and climbing onto the bike.

He walked it back a little before putting his foot to the pedal and speeding out of the area to another similar colony before stopping in front of a house with crates and beds and suitcases, and more crates, piled up outside, a young woman with honey blond hair and a man with sleek black hair brushed down supervising the loading of the luggage into the van parked out front." 

"Mr. Maple, Mrs. Maple!" Ethan called out as they turned their attention towards him, smiling.

"Ah! Ethan! What brings you to our neck of the woods?" Caroline Maple asked as Ethan shifted slightly. "I'm on my journey as a trainer, and I thought I'd stop by and see you all one last time before you leave and the new owners move in." He explained.

"When are you guys leaving anyways?" he asked as Norman walked up to him.

"In two hours. Then the new owners will arrive soon after and move in." he replied, his face calm, his eyes betraying joy too great for words.

"Good luck being one of the upper gym leaders over in Hoenn! Could you tell me anything about your replacement here sir?" Ethan asked hesitantly as Norman nodded.

"Very young, about eighteen, pink hair, loves Miltank, and her name is Whitney. She's strong, perfect for the position of third gym, but she isn't used to losing at all. She may take it badly. And she's very childish." Norman replied, turning towards the builders.  
"Brendan's upstairs, working on his computer."

"Thanks." Ethan nodded, heading in through the open door and through the empty house up to the second floor, knocking on the open door of a barren room and entering as his friend looked up from a sleek thin, silver laptop.

"Haylo." Brendan greeted him, holding the computer in one hand and shaking Ethan's hand with the other. "How the hell did you run into an Aggron here?"

"Daycare center. Long story, I'll tell you some other time. But now tell me, when the hell is your bloody app going to be ready?" Ethan laughed as Brendan smiled.

"Actually, I finished it two hours ago. I was just checking that the security measures work. Nobody but you me and Bill will have access to the data. We don't have all the Pokémon in the world catalogued in it, heck, probably around half maybe, and we don't have all the data either. I'm trusting you to enter more data on any Pokémon you catch or are given. We have all of Indigo, thanks to Bill, and I've accumulated all the data I can on Hoenn since I'm moving there, and a little bit on Sinnoh, Kalos and Unova." Brendan explained as he plugged a wire into the computer, handing the other end to Ethan who connected it to his phone, the Slate connecting to the computer as Brendan copied an app to it, nodding towards the fingerprint sensor on the front.

Ethan scanned his fingers one by one as the app registered him as the owner, locking itself against everyone else.

"So, just point the camera at a Pokémon and it tells me what it knows?" Ethan asked as Brendan closed his laptop and slipped it into a satchel sitting with him on the lone crate in the room.

"Yeah. Next time you see Bill, thank him, and if you upgrade your phone, we'll have to recode it a bit, so talk to Bill about that as well."

"Don't worry. I won't have that problem. Bill's the mastermind behind Slate, so I'm only ever going to upgrade to a Slate. How do you think I managed to afford it?" Ethan chuckled as Brendan nodded.

"Well… I guess this is farewell for now bro." Ethan remarked solemnly, shaking Brendan's hand and then hugging him once.

"Bye bro." Brendan replied, as serious as he could actually be.

Ethan nodded, saluting him and walking out, going back out to the street and mounting his bike once again as he headed out to the main city to find a Pokémon center to stay the night in.

He wound up in front of the Pokémon center across the road from the mag-lev rails' station, the latter of which seemed to be out of order or something, and walked inside, walking up to the counter.

"Hello, how may I help you?" the nurse at the counter asked, smiling.

"Um… I need a room for the night." Ethan replied as the nurse dug out a key and handed it to Ethan, pointing him in the direction of the room.

Ethan walked in, dumping his bag and his bike, which came with a small capsule like a poke ball for storage, in the capsule, and putting it on the bed.

He walked out again, making his way out and towards the quiet docks, standing on a viewing dock, a wide terrace over the ocean for looking out to sea, dialing his mother's number.

"Oh hello Ethan honey! How are you?" she asked, picking up after the third ring."

"I'm good mom. How are you?" he replied, thinking over his adventure, and deciding the parts not to tell her about if she asked to hear about it.

"How's your journey going? Tell me everything!" She squealed in delight as Ethan sighed.

"Relax, it's a long story." Ethan remarked, "Well... from Violet City…."

…

One retelling of Ethan's story with certain parts omitted later…

"Well that sounds great! Don't forget to visit your Cousin Archer! I'm sending you his phone number. Call ahead first." She ended, cutting the call and texting him a Goldenrod number.

He copied it, saving it and dialing the number. It picked up after a few rings.

"Hello, Archer Toluene here. Who might this be?" the man at the other end asked, his voice smooth and persuasive.

"Hey Archer, it's me Ethan. Do you mind if I drop by today? I'm in Goldenrod as it is." He asked, getting straight to the point, leaving all actual things worth talking about for the face to face.

"Ethan! How have you been! Of course! Come to the mag-lev station and give them your name. I'll tell them to let you come up to my office." Archer replied, cutting the call as Ethan walked towards the east, heading for the mag-lev rail station.

He walked inside, going up to the elevator and giving the guard his name.

"Third floor, opens into the room." The man grunted, opening the elevator for him as he stepped inside, pressing he metal button for the third floor.

He waited until the bell sounded and the doors opened, stepping out into a large spacious office with a light blue carpeted floor, and a light wood desk curving in front of the window, the room decorated well with a few white leather chairs and couches and a steel and glass coffee table, two leather backed chairs next to each other in front of the desk, a swivel chair behind it.

Standing with his hands on the swivel chair behind the desk was Archer, a tall slim man around 6' 2", with a sharp cut jaw and place skin, his short cyanish blue hair ruffled, his white suit impeccable as always.

"Archer!" Ethan greeted him as Archer in turn raised his arms and smiled.

"Ethan! How good to see you! What brings you so far from home? Is Aunt Melissa with you? Or Lucy?" he asked, walking around his desk.

"No. I'm on my journey as a Pokémon trainer now."

"That's good. That's wonderful in fact." Archer replied, taking a two bottles of soda out of the mini fridge Ethan hadn't noticed earlier and setting them down in front of Ethan before fetching two glasses.

"How's work going these days? Why'd you guys close down the mag-lev rails?" Ethan asked, opening his bottle and pouring some into the glass.

"We're killing two birds with one stone. We have some cargo we need shipped from our old offices in Saffron to Goldenrod, and we have some technical issues with the train. So we're having trains carry the cargo here as testing and fixing them after we see the issues. Problem is, it isn't a little bit, or some, it's actually quite a lot, and we have some major issues. We may be closed the entire year!" Archer sighed, holding up his hands.

"Wow. That's… difficult." Ethan replied, a bit at a loss for words.

"But since you guys are family, here. You can still use the train at the risk of the lights going out, or a few other things that won't harm you." Archer picked up a card from his desk, scribbled something on it and signed it, handing it to Ethan.

"Hand that to the reception lady and she'll make you a mag-lev pass with my permission on it for the trains we have managed to repair." He explained as Ethan smiled, nodding.

"Thanks."

"How many badges do you have right now?" Archer asked, leaning back on the couch.

"Two. I've been through Violet City and Azalea Town on my way here."

"That's good. So you'll take on Whitney next?" Archer inquired, drinking his entire glass in one go.

"Yep." Ethan replied as Archer's phone buzzed and he excused himself to his desk for a moment to answer it as Ethan sighed.

Archer walked back over after a brief conversation.

"Sorry, but I've got a meeting in fifteen minutes. Why don't we meet up over dinner tonight? Say around seven? We can have a battle later." Archer suggested, opening the elevator door.

"Sure. I don't see why not." Ethan replied, shrugging and shaking Archer's hand.

"Meet me at the sea side restaurant next to the radio tower." Archer finished as the doors closed.

…

Around four in the afternoon…

Ethan walked forward, staring at the radio tower when he felt something under his shoe and stepped to the left while lifting his foot to check. He felt a rush of wind and then he fell to the ground, his balance impaired as a man in magenta pants and a purple shirt with magenta sleeves, as well as a black waistcoat stumbled next to him.

The man's eyes widened as he noticed Ethan lying on the sidewalk.

"Oh dear! I'm so sorry! My teleportation is still a bit weak!" the man apologized, helping Ethan to his feet as Ethan raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry, my name is Will, one of the Elite four of the Indigo League and… my my… you have a powerful Aura!" Will introduced himself as Ethan's mouth fell open. He was standing in front of one of the five most powerful people in all of Indigo, one of the three most powerful from Johto.

"Hi…. I'm Ethan Photon." Ethan shook Will's outstretched hand and looked at him quizzically.

"What did you mean when you said I had a powerful Aura? And while we're on the subject, what is aura?"

"Oh my… this might take a while. Let's sit down shall we?" Will suggested as he didn't let go of Ethan's hand.

Suddenly the whole world warped around Ethan as he felt the contents of his stomach slowly rise up his throat, falling back as they materialized on a terrace in a small castle by the seaside, built into a mountain, two chairs and a table with hot coffee waiting on it in front of them.

"Why don't we sit down?" Will suggested again, pulling forward a chair and sitting down.

"Coffee?" He asked as Ethan numbly nodded, the pitcher pouring out steaming coffee into a mug which slid over to him slowly.

He accepted it, drinking slowly as he tried to recover from the queasiness of teleportation.

"Aura is essentially a type of energy every living being exudes, an energy which all Pokémon can see, clairvoyants can see, but humans can't. There's even a Pokémon line that can manipulate aura. Your aura reflects your personality. You like to be fast and not necessarily have strength behind you to pack a punch. But you don't mind strength either. Look at your Pokémon. All of them are fast or will grow up to be fast, and most of them are powerful too." Will explained.

"How do you know what my Pokémon are?" Ethan exclaimed, reaching for his ultra-balls.

"Clairvoyant remember? When I mentioned Pokémon they drifted to the front of your mind."

"Now that I've explained this to you… let's return." Will stated as he took Ethan's hand again, the same feeling passing as they reappeared on the Goldenrod City pavement. Ethan felt like hurling but he held back, trying to avoid it. The day was confusing enough as it was.

…

Around 7:58 p.m. the same day…

"So Ethan, what Pokémon do you have?" Archer asked, wiping his lips with a napkin.

"I'm not answering that until you tell me what Pokémon you have on you for the battle." Ethan replied, smiling.

"Fair enough… I have a Houndoom, a Houndoor and a Crobat. Now you." Archer replied, smirking slightly.

"Typhlosion, Scyther, Haunter, Croconaw." Ethan replied, taking the last piece of his fish with his fork and eating it.

"Three on three on the beach?" Archer asked as Ethan nodded, reaching for his Ultra balls as he tried to choose which Pokémon to keep and which one not to use.

Scyther and Quiver were no use against either Houndoor or Houndoom, though both would be good against Crobat. Specter was actually also useless against the hounds, which meant that Croconaw would definitely fight.

He would have to use Pokémon that could hit a flying Crobat so he would have to think. But bug types also had a weakness in poison types. So it would have to be Quiver and Specter.

Ethan walked out with Archer as the former paid the bill and headed out. He followed his older cousin out to the beach, taking his shoes off and setting them on a chair as Archer did with his jacket and his own shoes.

"Houndoor, you're up!" Archer shouted, letting the young dark type come out on to the beach. It growled at the sea, then turned towards Ethan as he tossed out Croconaw.

"Croconaw, water gun!" Ethan shouted as the Crocodile Pokémon let loose a stream of water at the dark type, knowingly backing it into the ocean as the attack missed but a wave hit the young hound, knocking it out.

"Houndoor, you did well anyway. Your turn Houndoom!" Archer shouted as he recalled the fallen hound and tossed out another one, bigger, meaner, and of course, evolved.

Ethan raised an eyebrow at Archer's choice of Pokémon, not saying anything.

"Croconaw, once again!" Ethan instructed as the croc shot a water gun at Houndoom, the dark type leaping to higher ground this time.

"FELLAS! YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO CUT IT SHORT! WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY! WILD TYRANITAR!" a man shouted down from the docks.

"Can't catch a break around here, can I?" Ethan muttered, heading for his shoes. "Just can't catch a break."


	4. Apprentice to a Champion?

**Chapter 4: Apprentice to a Champion?**

 **A/N: So sorry about such a late update, it's just been hectic as heel for me and I'm leaving on the first of August for a month so probably no new chapter in august, and when I get back its school. So um... yea. I need a cover image for this, so if anyone good at drawing stuff wants to submit, I need Ethan, dressed the way I described him (Mask down) with Quiver and Scyther by his side, sitting by the sea in Goldenrod. Email it to spironax with your fanfic username so I can give you a shout out.**

…

Ethan trudged up the beach, trying to run faster and get to wherever the hell the Tyranitar was rampaging. He managed to reach the wooden boardwalk, sprinting after Archer as a deep, earth shattering roar sounded, making him quake in his boots.

He turned a corner as he tried to catch up to his blue haired cousin, stopping dead in his tracks as he saw multiple townspeople, including a young girl with two pink pigtails, fighting the mighty beast and trying to hold it back as it tore through the city, pushing the defense line further and further back as it approached the east side of the city, taking the people slowly towards the edge of the forest.

"Ethan, get in here and help!" Archer shouted, releasing his own Pokémon, Houndoom, Houndoor, and Crobat into the fray to fight for Goldenrod, joining the efforts of the citizen as Ethan went over the situation once in his head. Two of his Pokémon were useful here, two would be utterly useless.

He tossed out Croconaw and Scyther, the Pokémon in battle stance, having been prepared for the previous battle against Archer, instead finding themselves against an opponent of much greater caliber.

"Croconaw, it's your first real battle, so show me what you've got and kick some rear! Scyther, it won't damage it, but whip up a tornado to distract it and give the townspeople a moment to think and react, then we attack!" Ethan shouted, his arm stretched out towards Tyranitar.

Croconaw immediately kicked into fighting mode, sprinting forward as fast as its stubby legs would allow and leaping onto Houndoom, riding it to battle like a knight rode their steed, only a bit crazier. It fired off water gun after water gun at what appeared to be the monster's weak spot, a gap in its army green armor, a blue diamond in the center of its chest, as Scyther ran around Tyranitar, solely Tyranitar, the wide diameter making it harder to whip up a tornado strong enough to actually last.

"Croconaw! Try something else! Ethan shouted as he whipped out his phone, zooming in first on Croconaw and checking its moves before focusing the camera on Tyranitar.

 _Tyranitar. Probably the most powerful non mythical Pokémon in Johto, close match with Kingdra, probably weaker because of typing. Dark and Rock type, also one of the strongest Pokémon in Indigo as a whole, evolves from Pupitar which is a stage where Larvitar is inside a giant Cocoon, like a pupa form, which it can see through and control. Hell powerful, near impossible to find in the wild, live in and on mountains, depending on said mountain, each Tyranitar claiming one mountain as its territory among its kind, only for itself and its kin. This one is exceedingly powerful, from the growth probably from Mount Silver, not to be messed with under any circumstances, and by age and strategy estimate from filming so far, knows for sure; Dark Pulse, Earthquake, Rock Throw, Rock Slide, and probably Hyper Beam and Blizzard. Good luck not soiling your pants while trying to escape._

Ethan sighed. Typical Brendan, putting in some of himself into the reply calculator. He slipped his phone back into his pocket, turning back to the battle to see Croconaw now riding a Miltank, having found a club somewhere which it was ludicrously swinging in every direction, one time actually hurting the Tyranitar, as well as Archer running towards him.

"Ethan! My Pokémon are out! They were helpless here anyway! I underestimated this bloody thing! I'm running to my office to get other Pokémon!" he shouted across the road as Ethan nodded, turning his head back towards the battle.

"Scyther, one last push!" Ethan shouted as the bug type struggled to finally set a tornado spinning as all the townspeople retreated, taking their time to catch their breaths and plan ahead.

Scyther and Croconaw lumbered over to him slowly as he pulled a super potion out of his bag, trying to heal some of the wounds form the battering they had just been given.

"Good work out there you two. Now we just need to keep this up until we knock it out, then it's the town's problem to drag it away." Ethan joked as he wiped the congealing blood off of Scyther and Croconaw, taking out an antiseptic and cleaning the wounds before wrapping them for a moment with medicine and fixing bandages around them.

"Now, let's get ready to win a badge without fighting the leader!" Ethan jested, turning towards the dying out tornado.

Tyranitar stepped out of the circle where it had remained inside Scyther's tornado with barely a scratch on its hide.

"Holy shit! Croconaw, Scyther, don't hold anything back, and be careful! This guy means business!" Ethan shouted to his Pokémon as he saw the fight continue, people's Pokémon and the people themselves getting knocked down like bowling pins.

"Croconaw, ice beam and follow up with water gun repeatedly!" Ethan shouted, turning towards Scyther. "Scyther, you need to find a weak spot and attack with X-Scissor!"

Croconaw took to riding an abandoned motorcycle, something Ethan would have laughed at had the situation not been so dire, and Scyther was climbing up the twenty foot monster's back, safe from its stubby arms and attacks, hacking at different spots to see the effect.

Never the less, Ethan couldn't resist taking a quick picture of the scene, Scyther scientifically examining Tyranitar's back with that crazy scientist eureka look and Croconaw holding a club, riding a motorcycle and preparing an ice beam.

"Scyther, found it?" Ethan shouted as in reply Scyther stabbed its blade up under one of Tyranitar's spikes, then another, and another, speeding up as it roared in pain, oblivious to the charging Croconaw who released an ice beam down its throat in the meantime.

Ethan smiled, watching happily until the Tyranitar lowered its spikes, trying to crush Scyther's blades, which were stuck inside it, , summoning a blizzard and attacking both Scyther and Croconaw with it, the former not well off at all.

It released Scyther's blades and reared, tossing it to the ground and turning around, preparing flames in its maw and blasting before turning back to Croconaw.

Croconaw gulped as Tyranitar released a thunderbolt straight at it, crumpling the motorcycle like tin foil and throwing Croconaw back against a building and knocking it out. Ethan frantically recalled Scyther and reached for Croconaw's ultra-ball, placing it in his hand and throwing a rock at Tyranitar with his other hand as it moved in for the kill.

The rock hit the great beast in the eye as it turned towards Ethan, Ethan recalling Croconaw while he had the chance and gulping in fear. Not an ideal visit to Goldenrod.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" a deepish voice sounded as a blizzard struck, a large metal form around as tall as Tyranitar, which is to say nine feet tall, appeared in front of him, grappling with Tyranitar and pushing it back as he got hit in the stomach by a flying shard of ice, losing consciousness.

…

Ethan woke up in a hospital bed, staring at the ceiling as he tried to figure out where he was. He turned to his left, noting the IV drip and the wires leading up to him. He looked over his body to see it covered with heating pads. The door opened and a young man of around twenty one walked in, his silver shirt open over his white V-neck, his black jeans dirty. His pale face was concerned, and his steel gray eyes were hard, his silver hair sticking out in nearly every direction. He looked at Ethan, walking over to him and pulling a chair up, sitting down next to him.

"That was some good battling you did there, for someone with around two or three badges I'm guessing?" the man asked as Ethan merely nodded, unsure of who he was.

"What's your name kid?" he asked, turning towards Ethan again, his steel gray eyes betraying nothing but concern.

"Ethan Photon." Ethan held out one hand, waiting for the man's name.

"Nice to meet you Ethan. I'm Steven. Steven Stone." Steven took Ethan's hand, his iron grip hurting slightly as he shook it.

"Wait, you're the Steven Stone? The next in line to head Devon and the Hoenn champion?" Ethan asked, in awe that the champion of Hoenn was sitting by his bed and chatting with him casually.

"In the flesh. Anyway, you're a good battler." Steven remarked, leaning back in the chair.

"Thanks. What happened to the Tyranitar?" Ethan asked, shifting in his bed, feeling weak.

"I knocked it out, and I was going to capture and rehabilitate it, but a Crobat flew in with an Ultra-Ball and recalled it and it flew off. I tried to tail it, but it was too fast and it managed to shake me by entering the forests." Steven shook his head as he looked at Ethan.

"You have a strong aura." Ethan stared at Steven, trying to process the remark.

"I thought only psychics could see auras?" Ethan remarked as Steven laughed, reaching for a poke ball at his belt.

"If you spend enough time with an aura Pokémon, you start to see them too." Steven remarked, releasing a blue, humanoid, and hound like Pokémon into the room. "This is Lucario, quite literally the aura Pokémon.

Lucario, as it was called, sniffed at Ethan's chest before staring at him.

' _It is good to make your acquaintance.'_ It spoke in a deep gravelly voice, stretching out a paw which Ethan warily shook.

Steven let Lucario roam about, speaking to Ethan quietly.

"Actually, I have an egg, for a young Riolu, and I can't raise it. It would create a rift between me and Lucario for me to raise another unrelated Lucario. Can I trust you with it?"

"You just met me and you're asking me to raise an egg." Ethan raised an eyebrow as Steven nodded. "Pardon my language, but damn you're a nice guy. In any case, sure, I'll raise it."

Steven pulled a fairly sized blue and black egg out of his bag, handing it to Ethan, who promptly rearranged the contents of his own bag and set the egg down inside it to cushion it, zipping it.

"Apart from that, I know you pretty well from well, seeing your aura, and I want to train an apprentice. I have no kin, nor anyone at home who I would want to train. But I find you interesting. You don't have to make up your mind right now, but I have to be in Olivine at some point this year, so when you make up your mind, call this number." Steven replied, handing him a card.

"Okay." Ethan replied, lying back down as Steven recalled Lucario and left, walking out of the room.

Ethan reached for the nurse buzzer by his side, his hands numb as he pressed it and waited for a nurse to arrive.

"Excuse me miss, when can I go?" he asked her, trying to process the bubble gum colored hair that looked like bubble gum as well. Maybe he was hungry.

"Um, well you got hit with a minor part of a blizzard attack, so your body temperature dropped greatly, close to killing you, and we've been heating it to get it to normal. You may feel a bit sluggish which means your blood is still thick. Technically you're free to go, but I suggest waiting until you're not sluggish or numb, or slow or weak for that matter." She explained to him, turning around.

"Wait! Where are my Pokémon?" Ethan shouted across the room.

"Your Typhlosion and your Haunter are on your belt next to you, your Scyther is in surgery to fix part of its left blade, and your Croconaw is being X-rayed to make sure bone fragments didn't pierce its lungs when it broke a rib." She replied walking out as Ethan scrambled for his belt, releasing Quiver and Specter immediately.

"Hey guys. You need a new nickname buddy. Quiver doesn't fit you anymore." Ethan scratched Quiver's head as the fire type growled in agreement. "You have one in mind?"

Quiver nodded and licked him as Specter floated around.

"Tell Specter and he'll tell me." Ethan relaxed as the Typhlosion growled and barked at the ghost, to have it relay a name to Ethan.

' _Canis.'_ Specter whispered the name as though somebody was listening before cackling wildly.

"Okay, you are officially renamed Canis!" Ethan proclaimed, wrapping an arm around Canis as it climbed onto the bed next to him, snuggling under the pads and heating his body much faster.

"That's much better than these stupid pads Canis, thanks buddy." Ethan remarked as he lay down, closing his eyes as his Pokémon stayed by his side, napping.

When he woke up later, he felt much better, and clipped to his belt were his other two Ultra-Balls. He woke up Canis and Specter, calling out Scyther and Croconaw as he read the clipboard left by his belt.

"Your Scyther's left blade will take around another week to heal fully, and your Croconaw is fine now. You can leave if you feel fine, just notify the front desk."

Ethan stood up, recalling his Pokémon and tying his belt around his waist as he walked out of the room slowly, making his way to the front desk and checking out as he returned to the Pokémon center to his room. He walked in and released his Pokémon, letting them all out into the room as he examined the bandages around Scyther's left blade, leaving them alone.

"Guys, Quiver is now Canis. New name. If you want a name in particular, tell Specter to tell me." Ethan instructed as Scyther turned towards the ghost, communicating.

' _Blur.'_

"It fits, and it suits you Blur. Croconaw, nothing in particular?" Ethan asked, turning towards the last member of the team.

Croconaw shook its head, making some weird gesture.

' _He says he'll stick with the nickname you'll give him when he evolves.'_ Specter explained, cackling pointlessly.

"Okay, thanks for telling me that. How do you guys feel about training a bit, Scyt- I mean Blur, can get used to using only one blade and increase dexterity." Ethan asked, squatting as he faced all of his Pokémon.

There was a collection of cackles, snaps, unknown noises and barks as Ethan stood up.

"I'm taking that as a yes." He laughed, leading them out of the Pokémon center and the city to a small clearing near the edge of the woods.

"Okay, Canis, I need you to focus on learning Lava Plume. Basically you have to send out molten lava rocketing from your back like a volcano erupting. Once you can handle this, Eruption should be easy for you once you're strong enough. Try practicing on that rock over there." Ethan instructed, pointing to the huge boulder in the center of the clearing.

"Croconaw, I want you to learn ice fang. You need to make your jaws so cold that they generate ice upon impact. Practice on a tree. Blur, I need you to learn to use moves that require both blades with one blade. Use trees. Specter, we need to work on getting multiple shadow balls out in one ring so the opponent can't dodge. They don't have to be strong right now, we can work on that later. You targets, pick a tree." Ethan instructed, sitting down as his Pokémon set to work, watching them practice.

Canis was producing lava and sending it into the air, but it wasn't nearly warm enough and kept condensing into stone in midair. At least they had rock throw down.

"Canis, I know creating a high enough temperature to keep lava liquid is tough since you've only dealt with fire before, but I trust you, and I know you can do it. I don't understand you biology so I won't try to instruct you without research right now." Ethan encouraged his starter as it looked at him and blinked before getting back to work.

"Blur, you're doing well! And so are you Specter! They don't have to be strong right now, you just have to get them out fast. How about some paired work. Specter, try and hit Blur with around three. Don't worry about strength since you're just sparring, work on speed first, and slowly work on strength. Blur, being a bug type, you can defend against shadow ball with your blades. Try deflecting and dodging with one blade." Ethan instructed as his Pokémon positioned themselves opposite each other, starting the spar as Specter formed a ring of three smallish shadow balls and fired them off at Blur, who got hit by one, avoided one, and deflected one, knocking the ball back at Specter.

"Good, now both of you work on improving, Specter you don't have to get down if Blur deflects them, after all, that's what he's practicing, you just have to work on aiming correctly and timing, and them we can work on strength. Now I'm trusting you guys to stay safe while I get us all some lunch." Ethan called out, pulling his folding bike out of his bag and setting it up, cycling away.

He reached the city in a minute and rode through it, looking for a subway and entering. He locked the bike at the door, waiting in line until his turn came.

"Triple turkey, toasted flatbread, crushed jalapeno paste, and four bags of food for my Pokémon, a Typhlosion, a Croconaw, a Haunter, do they even eat by the way? And a Scyther." He finished, handing the woman money as she made his sandwich and wrapped it, handing him four bags, each one marked with the type of Pokémon and a drink, and sent him off.

He walked outside, biking back to the clearing to find everything the way he left it, Blur deflecting more than it was getting hit by now, and Specter aiming better, and firing at the same speed. He looked over at Canis, who' lava was cooling right before it hit the rock, still an improvement, and then at the area of broken trees covered in ice, Croconaw still practicing.

"Okay guys, lunch break. Croconaw, afterwards I want you to find another boulder and drag it here and practice on that for strength." Ethan called out as he handed everyone their bags, watching to see what was inside them.

Canis and Croconaw both got huge piles of sliced meat and some lettuce. Blur got mainly vegetables and some honey and bread. Haunter, well Haunter got honey. It turned out that that was the only thing Haunter's ate because they loved the sweet taste and their tongues were the only corporeal parts of their bodies.

He himself dug into his own lunch, wolfing down the sub and finishing off as he waited for everyone else to settle down before holding his hand up to get their attention.

"Okay guys, we'll have a new travelling companion soon. It'll be a Riolu, an aura Pokémon." Ethan explained as he showed them all the egg, carefully settling it away in his bag again.

"So we can all help raise him okay?" Ethan asked as they nodded in unison, lounging about for a while to digest the food before getting back to training.

"Come on guys! They gym leader won't know what hit her!" he shouted, encouraging them as the continued on, stopping at night and heading back to the Pokémon center.

…

Early the next morning…

Ethan crept out of the Pokémon center, not wanting to wake up the nurse who had dozed off after a night of no sleep. He silently walked out of the automatic doors, checking the time on his phone before opening a map to the gym.

He unlocked his bike, riding through the city to the area where the gym was supposed to be located, and sure enough, the trademark gym building was located right there. He stepped inside, locking his bike first and then entering.

Ethan had never seen so much pink in his life, and he lived with two sisters and his mother. Everything in the playground like area was pink, with the occasional white, cream or yellow highlight here and there. There were high running walls going around the playground with archways through them at points and stairs up them at points, allowing people to walk on the walls to try and get a grip on where they were.

Ethan walked straight forward, through one archway to find himself facing a yellow and pink swing set blocking his path. He gritted his teeth and lay flat against the floor, crawling under it to save time and following the path to the gym leader. He reached the end of the gym, where in a tall alcove, the same girl with pink pigtails from the day before was passed out on a huge Snorlax plushy bed. She was quiet literally reeking of alcohol, a nearby tankard proving that she was in fact, drunk.

Ethan sighed and sat down, waiting for her to wake up so that he could get his gym badge, sitting there for over an hour until an assistant finally arrived.

"Oh sorry sir, Whitney won't be up to battling for another few hours." The woman grinned sheepishly as Ethan stood up annoyed.

"In that case, reserve me the battle spot for whenever she wakes up and call me please." Ethan replied, writing his name and number on the waiting list and heading out.

He unlocked his bike, making his way out to the spot where they had been training earlier and letting all his Pokémon out.

"Okay guys, so the gym leader is drunk and she passed out, so we'll train for a while. Pretty much the same as yesterday. Canis, you're on Lava Plume, Croconaw, Ice fang, Specter, work on strength slowly while maintaining speed on some trees, and don't sacrifice aim. Blur, not dodging, but deflecting with one blade. I'm practicing boxing. My punches can't even hurt you so you're safe, and you're just defending." Ethan explained as each of the Pokémon went to find a spot in the clearing to train as Ethan and Blur paced out a little, finding a good spot to spar. He knew that in terms of reaction speed, Blur would easily win, but he was human. He was unpredictable. He needed to teach Blur how to read body language and attack or defend based off of that.

Ethan readied himself, raising his fists and lashing out all of a sudden as his fist made contact with Blur's blade, the bug type stopping his right fist, but then moving the blade down to block his left fist as he tossed that forward too, bringing his right fist up and around Blur to try and hit him.

Ethan stepped forward, feinting an attack with his right fist then pulling back to attack with his left, something Blur expected, but what Blur didn't expect was that the left was also a feint, and then he got hit in the side. It didn't even tickle. But he had been hit. It was infuriating.

Ethan smiled as he went straight back to the offensive for another few hours, Blur working furiously to counter its trainer's unpredictability. He pressed his blade against his head for a minute, trying to go through Ethan's body language during a break.

"Okay everybody, I'm going to get lunch, same as yesterday! Stay safe!" Ethan called out, biking to the same subway and handing the woman his receipt so as to get the same thing as the day before. He pressed his hand against the counter as she pressed the bags into his hands as he payed her and biked off, making for the clearing again to find all of his Pokémon sitting together in an intricate black stone like statue.

It was made up of thick, flat, rounded, wide ribbon like structures, around five of them, which curled around in different directions, creating seats for the five of them. Even Specter was trying to sit down.

"What did you guys do?" Ethan asked, setting the bags down as Canis ran over to another rock and released a lava plume into the air as it went up a short distance and crashed onto the rock, still molten and blazing hot as Canis rearranged the melting rock with his paws before Croconaw cooled it down with a water gun, releasing steam into the air.

"Brilliant! Good job Canis! And Croconaw, thanks for figuring out how to prevent us from sitting on a molten rock! Now lunch time!" he called out, handing out the bags and stretching his legs out in his seat as he ate.

"Okay guys, a little break to digest the food, and then back to training. We cannot lose to someone who had the indecency to get drunk on a working day!" Ethan called out, pulling his mask up and shutting his eyes for a few minutes, sitting there for another hour with his Pokémon before they got up, setting to work again. He pressed his hands against the stone, pushing himself to the ground and setting to work with Blur again before sitting down, exhausted, and pairing Blur and Specter up as he watched Canis and Croconaw spar.

His team was good. They were his friends. Ethan lay back, next to his bag, when he heard a cracking sound. It took a moment to realize what it was, but he figured it out, and calling out to the others, he took the egg out of his bag. He set it down carefully and watched as the egg cracked and a young, blue, wolf like Pokémon came out. A young Riolu.

"Croconaw, give him a bath, will you? And clean the egg out as well." Ethan watched as Croconaw lightly doused Riolu with water, washing him off and then proceeding to clean out the egg.

"Hi. I'm Ethan. I'm your trainer." Ethan introduced himself, holding his hands out, palms up, incase Riolu wanted to sniff them, which it did, before it climbed onto his chest and places a paw over his heart, blue energy coursing through its arm and into his body as a young boyish voice sounded in his head.

' _Hi. I'm a Riolu. I don't have a name yet.'_ It spoke through the aura bonding it had created between itself and its new trainer as Ethan smiled.

' _How about Aura?'_ Ethan asked as Aura nodded, climbing up to his neck and sitting down.

"This is our family. Canis, Blur, Croconaw and Specter." Ethan introduced them as they stepped forward turn by turn, Aura running up and sniffing each of them before happily accepting them as his family.

"Now I'm just going to explain a bit about this, then I'll catch you so you can't be caught by someone else, but you can stay out of your poke ball when you want to."

…

Ethan stopped watching his pother Pokémon train Riolu as hi phone started ringing, picking it up after looking at the unknown number.

"Hello? Who is this?" he asked, sitting there as Riolu practiced punching.

"This is Melany of the Goldenrod Gym? Is this Ethan Photon?" the woman at the other end asked.

"Yes, this is he." He replied, taking his ultra-balls off his belt and recalling his Pokémon one by one. He had Aura climb up onto his neck since he had sent Kurt the ultra-ball for coloring.

"Whitney's awake and sober now." The woman cut the line after uttering the words as Ethan closed his phone, slipping it into his pocket and getting onto his bike.

He made his way through the city, finding the gym again and taking the same path as Aura climbed onto a small swing set, enjoying itself immensely.

"Last time I saw you, you were saving our hides from a Tyranitar." Whitney remarked, proving that she was sober as she lay on the Snorlax plushy bed again.

"And last time I saw you, you were drunk and unconscious." Ethan replied, reaching for his Ultra-Balls.

"Come on out Miltank!" Whitney shouted as Ethan tossed out Croconaw, the water type raising the club it had managed to keep when it saw what it though was its steed from the other day.

"Croconaw, no holding back!" Ethan shouted as the crocodile ran forward, biting Miltank repeatedly and knocking it out.

"Okay then, Croconaw, return!" Ethan recalled the water type, worried about how weak Whitney was.

"Come on out, Tauros!" she shouted, as Ethan released Blur, the Scyther eager for a battle.

"Tip and strike!" Ethan shouted as Blur disappeared, running towards Tauros and tipping it as one would a cow, as he stabbed and slashed at its underbelly while Whitney tried to stutter commands.

"NO FAIR MEANIE!" She shouted, tossing out another Miltank, by the looks of it, her last Pokémon. "MILKY! RUN THAT BUG OVER!" She shouted as it moved into a rollout, aiming for Blur.

Blur easily avoided the attack, striking at Whitney's Pokémon, but this one was much more resilient than the others.

"Blur, Rodeo Style!" Ethan shouted as Blur whipped around Miltank and jumped onto its back as Miltank tossed it into the air, letting it fly before releasing a rock slide onto it.

"Blur! Rest a bit! You're not down, but you're at a disadvantage!" Ethan called out, recalling Blur and releasing Croconaw again.

Croconaw raised its club again, getting back onto Miltank whacking its head repeatedly until it was knocked out, raising its club in triumph as Ethan laughed hysterically.

"Good job!" he called out as Whitney threw a badge at him, which he pointedly dodged, Aura catching it and handing it to him.

"GET OUT YOU MEANIE!" she shouted, crying as Ethan stopped laughing and recalled Croconaw, picking Aura up and placing him on his neck before leaving.

"Come on buddy, these guys don't know how to lose." Ethan murmured, biking away.


	5. Legends Awakened

**Chapter 5: Legends Awakened**

 **Once again, sorry for such a ridiculously late update, I'm sorry, my computer just developed problems! See I updated to windows ten which wiped my word during my vacation, so I had to wait a month, then I backed up my files and reset it to windows 8.1 as my computer developed issues which took up till say end of September to fix. And now long story short, sorry, I've been busy, school's busy, and my weekends have been busy with competitions and whatnot, busy, blah blah blah. Apart from that, as soon as I started to write this chapter and hit three thousand words, I fell sick. I think I'm better now. I still need a cover image. The email address is spironax at Gmail dot com. And I'm going to change my username to Spironax soon, and please follow my twitter at spironax for updates about chapter progress etc., new chapters, and setbacks. Enjoy.**

…

Ethan stood still, stretching his arms as Aura climbed onto his neck before he set off on his way to Ecruteak. Route 35 as a whole wasn't very big, in all probability it should have taken him a maximum of two days to cross it, and that would be at a leisurely stroll.

He stepped forward, officially exiting Goldenrod and stepping out onto route thirty five. He looked around him, seeing no nearby trainers and walking forward, making his way down the wide dirt road made by centuries of travel between Ecruteak and Goldenrod. Clouds were scarce, the sun beating down on Ethan's neck, negated by a cool breeze as they walked, Ethan answering every question Aura had, of which there were many.

' _Okay, I think I have this straight now. We're on our way to Ecruteak City to challenge the gym there, which will be your fourth gym battle in Johto, and from there west to other cities to challenge their gyms.'_ Aura tried to explain to see whether he had understood it correctly himself.

"Yes. And the reason we're not going east like everybody else does first is because even though the gym leaders in the east would have to fight me with four and five badge teams, their teams even at that stage are ridiculously strong. And Croconaw isn't strong enough or big enough to carry me over the huge lake on the way there." Ethan replied, taking a pen out of his pocket and throwing it up and down, catching it repeatedly as he walked, his eyes on the road in front of him, noticing a trainer not far away.

He picked up his pace, moving at a brisk walking speed, reaching said trainer fifteen minutes later.

"Hi, I'm Jimmy. Have you seen any Pokemon nearby?" the trainer asked, extending a hand which Ethan shook in turn.

"You know this is a road right? There aren't going to be any wild Pokemon on a road." Ethan deadpanned, shaking his head slightly as a frown formed on the young boy's face.

"Okay. In that case, I challenge you to a battle! Do you accept?" the boy asked, getting into a battling stance.

"Three on Three." Ethan replied, reaching for Canis's pokeball before deciding to ask a question. "How many badges do you have?"

"One!" the boy exclaimed proudly as Ethan sighed, moving his hand away from Canis's pokeball, and every other one on his belt.

"Aura you're up. First Battle!" Ethan gestured forward as the emanation Pokemon jumped of his shoulder and onto the ground, moving forward and readying himself.

"Go Larvitard!" the boy shouted, throwing a dented and scratched ultra-ball into the air, releasing an extremely annoyed Larvitar.

' _Aura, start off with an Aura sphere, then move in for a force palm when he's distracted, and try bullet punch after that.'_ Ethan instructed, guiding the young Pokemon every step of the way as it set off into motion, first generating a sphere of blue energy, spiraling it in his hand and firing it off at the Larvitar, scoring a dead center hit and causing it to stumble as Aura moved forward at a blinding pace, slamming glowing fist into the Larvitar before making both fists glow silver and launching a series of punches invisible to him within a few seconds with a bullet punch, sending the rock type flying from the collective pent up force, straight into its trainer.

"Okay, Larvitard, return! Go Skramory!" he shouted, tossing yet another dinged and dented ultra-ball into the air, this time releasing a sleeping Skarmory.

Ethan watched as Aura walked over to it and prodded it, failing to wake it up as the boy cursed, pulling a flute out of his pocket and playing it, waking the avian Pokemon up.

"Skramory, steel wing!" he shouted, turning towards the steel type.

' _Riolu, stay where you are and charge up a fist with aura. Duck and grab his wing, swing him around and smash him into the ground.'_ Ethan instructed as both Pokemon generated energy, the avian setting off towards the bipedal canine, the latter ducking and following Ethan's instructions to the letter, swinging the steel type into the ground using his own force coupled with the bird's own kinetic energy.

' _Now just repeatedly force palm it.'_ Ethan instructed as Riolu did so, executing the command perfectly and giving the Skarmory a beating that would leave it black and blue, or dented actually, for a few days. Red watched as the Pokemon slowly fell into unconsciousness, being recalled by its trainer.

"Good work Aura!" Ethan called out, not bothering to keep it private this time.

"How many badges do you have?" Jimmy asked, handing him a credit token and looking at him curiously.

Deciding not to make him feel bad about losing to a hatchling, he decided to word his reply carefully.

"Three." Ethan replied, smiling and walking away, moving further down the road as the day passed, the sun dipping below the trees near the evening as he approached the gate to Route thirty six. The security guard at the entrance to checked him once before letting him pass into the gate complex connected to the Pokéathalon arena, going to the area's Pokemon center.

He walked up to the counter, getting in line and pulling the card Steven had given him out and examining it, thinking all the while he was in the line. He stepped forward once it was his turn, putting the card back in his pocket.

"Could I have a room for the night and a checkup for one of my Pokemon please?" Ethan asked, smiling slightly. "He just hatched and had his first battle." At the words, Aura climbed off of his shoulder and onto the counter, staring at the nurse.

"Sure, um… let's see. You're sharing with two others, one Sicilia Alaconse, and one Lucania Alaconse. Room three zero six." The nurse replied, handing him a card and picking Riolu up.

Walking to one of the couches, Ethan sat down, thinking again until he saw the nurse standing in front of him, Aura by her side.

"HE's perfectly healthy." She smiled, walking away and leaving Aura with him as he walked to the room he was to share. He made his way up to flights of stairs and to the door marked 306, knocking twice before unlocking it and entering with his eyes closed.

"It's okay, you can open them." He head two voice say, and he opened his eyes to find two young girls, around seventeen years old, sitting, one reading in a chair, the other in front of the mirror blow-drying her hair.

"Hi. I'm Ethan, and I'm going to sleep now." He introduced himself, recalling Aura and going into the small restroom to change, returning to the room and falling flat on the small bunk.

…

Ethan woke the next morning to find himself staring at a wall, his head perched against his pillow which he was holding against a wall while sitting on his bed. Confusing. He dropped the pillow and shifted, moving around to face the floor and standing up as he picked up his bag, ducking into the restroom to change.

Once done, he walked straight out and checked out of the room, getting something to eat from the Pokemon center cafeteria and moving on, walking out to the Pokéathalon stadium, Steven's offer drifting to the front of his mind as he examined the event display at the entrance.

He reached for his Ultra Balls, sending his Pokemon out to read the board as well.

"What do you say guys? Want to try this?" Ethan looked at the board, scanning the event mix, speed, durability, strength, flexibility and others of such kinds.

Canis stared at it, examining it and nodding, looking at the others. Croconaw looked at the board, tapping one of the strength events with the club he had somehow managed to retain. Scyther looked at the board, placing one blade on the speed event, leaving Specter who shrugged and cackled, and Aura who stared at the speed and strength events.

"Okay, let's go register." Ethan suggested and walked into the building recalling his Pokemon.

"Hi, how do I register for a Pokéathalon, I guess?" Ethan asked, standing in front of the woman at the counter.

"There's fixes courses where you pick three Pokemon for three events of one category, and there are custom courses where you pick any three events and can use any three Pokemon for each event, and the total is compared with three other custom course attempts to judge positions. Which would you like to do sir?" The woman smiled, leaning over her keyboard in preparation to register him.

"I think I'll go for custom….. Block Smash, Relay Run and Hurdle Dash." Ethan replied, watching as she keyed in the events.

"Trainer card and use Pokemon please?" she asked as Ethan handed over his card and his belt with all five Ultra Balls.

"Thank you Mr. Photon, please report to lounge sixteen and a half on your far left." She gave him his things back, gesturing towards the end of the hall where there was a door marked with a star, like many others, and sixteen and a half painted on it in bold lettering.

Ethan accepted his belongings and walked down the hall to the door. Knocking once, he entered and sat down in the lounge where there was one other person waiting. A Karate Master by the look of his plain white robe and black belt. Ethan nodded in his direction before examining the page the woman had printed out, jumping at the announcement for Block Smash.

He walked out through the corridor labeled Strength and into the room for Block Smash, an entirely Glass chamber, ventilated of course, in the middle of the hurdle/relay track. Ethan stood in the back, waiting for the signal and releasing Canis as it came, the fire badger smashing into the blocks as per previous instruction, destroying block after block of cement, ripping through the pile as a machamp carried a new one in the duration of two seconds, Canis continuing to smash them as the clock crept down to forty seconds, sweat dripping down his nose.

"Good work Canis, take a break!" Ethan called out, recalling him and releasing Croconaw, who promptly smashed through two blocks with one strike of his club, continuing on two blocks at a time, taking out the pile, and the next, before finally slowing down around twenty seconds remaining.

"Croconaw, rest time!" Ethan called out, recalling him and releasing Aura while the machamp placed the new pile, allowing Aura to jump onto it and smash into it with Bullet Punch, breaking block after block with blow after blow and destroying yet another pile as the announcer called out time.

"And folks, the contestants for this round will be given one more pile to break in twenty seconds, with the same Pokemon currently out, and a black block, much denser, at the bottom, the last block for fifty points!" the man cried out, raising his arms as everyone cheered, a machamp sweating slightly as it first carried over the black block, then the rest of the pile, setting them down in order. Ethan stood tersely as the clock began, watching Riolu dig through the twenty cement blocks in ten seconds before moving on to the black block, which refused to yield.

' _Aura no! You have to use our hands!'_ Ethan shouted over the aura link as Aura prepared an Aura Sphere, heeding his words and absorbing it into his palm before smashing the block apart with a glowing hand as time ran out.

He looked around, seeing little progress with the block with his competitors, only one having made any progress, who had a massive gray Pokemon in front of him, which had impaled the block upon a girder it was carrying.

"And folks, the results of this round are…. Stanley Holt, five hundred and twenty point, for making a hole in the black block but not destroying it, Jimmy Carrion four hundred and thirty five points, Jonah Lee, three hundred and sixty points, and our winner, Ethan Photon with all five hundred and fifty points offered!" the man shouted over the uproar as Ethan smiled, scratching Aura's head.

"Good work buddy! How much energy do you normally put into an Aura Sphere?" he asked, frowning slightly.

' _Enough that on its own it can rip a sheet of steel of a hinge.'_ He replied, looking at him with his head tilted before Ethan recalled him, walking back to the lounge and sitting down. He released his Pokemon again, walking over to the cooler and getting them water.

"Okay, good work guys, now let's just keep this up for the next two events. Specter, you, Aura and Blur are going in for Hurdle dash, and for Relay it's the Aura, Blur and Canis." Ethan explained, sitting down with them and drinking a little bit of water as well.

He sat there with his Pokemon, reading for a little bit with the one book he had decided to pack into his bag, waiting for the next event to come along, which soon enough, it did. At the announcement for the Relay Run, he stepped up and walked out, making his way out of the room and walking towards the field, reaching it to find all three other contestants standing there, fiddling with their pokeballs.

Calmly, he selected the three for his chosen Pokemon of his belt, readying them to work quickly and watching as the countdown began.

"3, 2, 1…. RUN!" The announcer shouted as Ethan sent out Aura first, dashing off onto the course, and then his next two Pokemon to stand by his side, his strategy being Aura relaying a first person view of the course to them through his namesake, allowing them to plan ahead.

Ethan watched as the little Riolu sprinted past two of the other competitors, neck and neck with a Stantler as he crossed the line, tagging Blur, who then shot forward, a literal blur, stealing the show and finishing the lap while nearly lapping the last place Pokemon, switching in for Canis instead, who completed the task and ran as fast as his quadruped form would allow, not outstripping the Pokemon(who he had technically lapped) next to him, rather keeping parallel to it, a good feat for running next to a Pupitar.

Ethan sat in the provided chair, watching his Pokémon's progress on a close up camera with a lap tracker, smiling at the results, taking the time to continue thinking on what was continuously dwelling on his mind, examining the matter and deciding upon it, to confirm his decision once in Ecruteak City.

He watched the countdown clock silently, standing up and clapping vigorously with the rest of the crowd as the race ended, checking the final lap counter before recalling his Pokemon and readying himself for the results.

"Okay folks! In my hand I have the results of the relay run, fresh from the batons! In fourth place, Sidney Stalk. In third place, and I'll remind you that out of four, only first and second are pole positions, Sidney Stalk. In second place… Ethan Photon! And in first place, Colt Stonehearst!" the man announced, causing Ethan's jaw to drop as he checked the lap counter displayed on the board for all four runners, his being around twenty six, and the winner's being ninety four.

Ethan gritted his teeth, nearly flagging the announcer down to ask what was going on when the Pokémon's individual lap list came about and he realized why he hadn't won. Stonehearst's _slowest_ Pokemon had been his Pupitar. Apart from that, in the race had been two invisible blurs. A Scizor and an Arcanine. Now it made sense.

Ethan shrugged for no apparent reason, claiming his certification and walking back to the lounge and lapping out to the immediate announcement of the Hurdle Dash in the next arena, healing his Pokemon briefly and running for the arena, barely making it in time as he launched Aura into the track of shifting hurdles, watching him effortlessly run under them, which wasn't against the rules. What was against the rules was leaving your lane or cutting the lane lines, breaking the hurdle and avian Pokemon. Aura was none of those, and none of his other Pokemon defied those rules either.

He sat down, catching his breath after the three hundred meters he had had to run to get to the stadium from the lounge, watching his competition carefully this time as they gathered their next Pokemon for the next turn, which was not in any way connected. The basic gist of this event's point system was a certain number of points for a certain distance without hitting any hurdles within ten minutes. Then the points of all three runs, one for each Pokemon, were added up and the person with the most points for the day won.

Ethan readied Blur's pokeball, keeping his ace in the hole hidden until the third run and released him as Aura refused the lift back across the distance he had covered, instead choosing to run back through them for fun, not winded much. Ethan waited as Aura ran back, beating the men carrying the contestants Pokemon back and sitting happily by Ethan's side.

' _That was fun. I guess that's it for me today?'_ he asked, sitting down next to Ethan as Ethan nodded, watching as Blur positioned himself to run, his wings vibrating so fast they were flickering in place, blasting off as the gunshot fired, the moment anticlimactic, hilarious in fact as the backdraft from his wings blew all the other contestants back twenty meters and into the wall, forcing them to get back to the line without a running start and then kick off, the time counting, by which point he had already covered a good deal of distance, already at the three hundred meter bend. Ethan couldn't help but laugh as he watched a huge Tauros flying into the wall, along with a large Rapidash and an odd, equine Pokemon with a head on its tail as well, its yellow and brown skin standing out.

Ethan watched as the world melted into shapes and lines passing by from Blur's point of view mounted camera drone, the drone occasionally slipping behind him. The Bug type sprinted as fast as it could without flying, jumping repeatedly to stay in the air above the hurdles, pushing through the course until he finally broke one by accident, but that was just the one. He kept going as the timer counted down, slowly ticking to a stop.

"Great work Blur. Now it's your turn Canis." Ethan said, recalling and releasing the Pokemon respectively before watching the fire type set off. It was a fair run, Canis running under the hurdles without breaking any and getting a perfect score. There was a minimum height for the event, but fortunately, in the posture of height measure a Typhlosion would stand on its rear legs, and increase its height enough to participate with ease.

Ethan readied Specter's Ultra Ball, tossing him out to the line to wait as the other competitors mulled over their Pokemon. He sighed, watching them until finally, the race began, Specter effortlessly passing through each of the hurdles as he built up speed, taking the lead and making it to the end before any other Pokemon. Ethan smiled, collecting his Pokemon and walking to the main arena for the announcements for the day's Pokéathalons.

"Okay folks, in Pokéathalon one….." Ethan tuned out, his eyes roaming over the stands as he waited for the man to call out for Pokéathalon five. A good half an hour later, due to a few difficulties, he did.

"….. Now Pokéathalon five, where in third place we have….. Smith Snitch! In second, Garner Garter and in first... Ethan Photon!" the man shouted, waiting for each of them to come up and receive their medals.

Ethan walked up to the stage after the others, releasing his Pokemon on the way and climbing up the stairs. He stood in line, waiting as the man gave out all the previous medals. Finally, when it was his turn, he took his medal and left for the Pokemon center for the night.

…

Ethan woke up to find himself, once again, staring at a wall. He slowly got up, falling out of the tiny bed in the process and hitting the floor hard. He stood up, gingerly rubbing his back and glaring at the floor.

After a quick shower and a hearty breakfast, he found himself standing at the brink of the bug catching zone, the exit towards Ecruteak in front of him. He pushed off, biking as fast as he could to get as far as he could in one day. He pushed on, the occasional wild Pokemon being dealt with by Blur who could keep up with him effortlessly, until he arrived at a roadblock of sorts.

In front of him was a tree as tall as a building, with barely any leaves, blocking the road entirely. Multiple trainers were standing there, fire types and flying types at their sides trying to get the tree down. Ethan stared at the tree, not releasing Canis after he saw the failed efforts of the trainers, frowning and thinking.

Finally, he whipped his phone out, scanning the tree and waiting for Brendan's database to correspond. He stared at the little radar icon as it circled until with a buzz, the phone opened a page.

 _Sudowoodo. The …. Pokemon. I don't know everything. It disguises itself as a tree much larger than itself when sleeping. It's a rock type, so if you want to wake it up, try a water attack. Or try spitting on it. Anything works._

Ethan chuckled at the last sentence, reaching for Croconaw's ultra-ball and tossing the gator out.

"Naw?" it asked, pointing first to the club and then to the tree.

"No. Try a water attack instead." Ethan suggested, sitting down as Croconaw charged the tree, blasting water at it at the last minute as the tree shook violently, shrinking rapidly until there was a stick like brown Pokemon standing in its place.

"Croconaw, now you can club it!" Ethan shouted as the gator smashed the club into the Pokémon's side, engaging in a brawl that the opposition was winning.

He watched as the rock type pushed Croconaw back, until white light started to diffuse from Croconaw, the gator glowing as the particles enveloped the space around him, pushing the Sudowoodo back as an enormous Feraligatr replaced the young Croconaw which had been standing there earlier, pushing the Sudowoodo to the ground and knocking it out.

Ethan stared at the Sudowoodo for a moment, deciding not to capture it. Turning to Feraligatr, he cast an eye over the beast's new body.

"How about Leviathan?" Ethan suggested as the gator pondered over it, settling on it and nodding.

"Good. Now let's just get all the way to Ecruteak." He remarked, climbing back onto his bike and recalling Leviathan. He pushed off again, making his way forward.

…

A day and three battles later…

Ethan stood in front of the tin tower, staring at the huge tower in front of him and then turning towards the burnt tower. Ecruteak city had been famous for its two towers. Until one burnt down. The legend went that these two towers had been the nesting places of the legendary birds Ho-oh and Lugia. The Burnt Tower, before it was the burnt tower, had one night in a storm, been struck by lightning and caught fire. The lightning itself caused a great deal of damage to the tower, but the fire destroyed it, and then suddenly, from the same storm, came rain, which doused the fire, leaving the remnants of the burnt tower lying on the site, the underground floors still intact.

As such, Lugia flew away, its new nest's locations unknown to man. Even Ho-oh stopped coming to the Tin Tower after the incident as well, but after performing one last deed in Johto. As the rain settled down, legend had it that Ho-oh flew over the burnt tower, a rainbow forming behind it as it created three beasts in the tower to roam and guard the land. A beast of lightning to temper that which had started the fire. A beast of fire to control the rage of the flames which had destroyed the tower. Lastly, a beast of water, the spirit of the rain that doused the fire. Raikou, Entei, and Suicune.

Ethan took one last look at the towers, walking away to get to the Pokemon center and book himself a room before sunset. Again, to fit in with the theme of the town, the roof was a much darker red, more like maroon. Ethan walked through the historical city, passing by the gym which he would challenge at some point on his way.

He finally found himself outside the center around two in the afternoon as rain slowly started, multiple droplets hitting his nose when he looked up. He entered the building, drying his face with his sleeve and walking to the counter.

"Excuse me ma'am, do you have any rooms available?" Ethan asked the nurse, young woman with dark brown hair.

"Do I look like a Ma'am to you!?" She exclaimed, glaring at him before turning to her screen. "214."

She handed him a key as he nodded carefully, walking away and going to the room. He was walking down the corridor towards the elevator when he saw a young man with shoulder length red hair duck into a room, shutting the door behind him rapidly.

'It couldn't have been him! He wouldn't risk staying in Pokemon center!' Ethan thought to himself, shaking his head and walking to the elevator, stepping in and going to the second floor to find his room.

He finally found the room, thankfully empty this time, and stepped into it, closing the door behind him, the first thing he did was let his Pokemon out, then take a shower. He let the hot water wash away all the grime of travelling and sleeping outdoors, drying off and getting dressed before collapsing on the bed. He pulled his phone and Steven's card out, making the decision and dialing the number.

' _The phone you're trying to call is currently switched off right now. Please try again later.'_ A mechanical voice sounded through the speaker as Ethan sighed, putting the phone down and turning over to face his Pokemon.

"Okay guys, first, we're going to explore a bit, since the Burnt Tower is open for exploration, and then tomorrow hopefully, we should take on the gym here. Now it's ghost type, so…. Specter, you're definitely in, but I need you to be careful. Blur, not this time. Bug isn't anywhere near effective on Ghost. Aura, you need to train a bit more, and besides, you're still not effective against Ghost anyway. So that makes it Canis, Leviathan and Specter." Ethan theorized as the door opened and a young girl around his age walked in.

"Sorry, one second." Ethan smiled, recalling his Pokemon to open up the floor.

"Thanks." She replied, quietly, not speaking further and sitting down on the bed.

Ethan picked up his phone and his ultra-balls, clipping the latter to his belt and heading out to the city after a quick lunch in the Pokemon center cafeteria. He walked straight down to the Burnt Tower, reading the sign once more to confirm that it was open for exploration, and picking up one of the complimentary escape ropes in the sack nailed to it.

He walked through the scaffolding doorframe into the remains of the ground floor, light from the sun streaming in from the massive holes in the roof as he walked towards a ladder to the underground floors, making his way down.

He climbed down the rickety rungs, jumping down the last two and pulling a torch out of his bag to see where he was going. There was a notice pinned to the top of the ladder advising against the use of fire for light because of the oxygen consumption.

He stepped forward, making his way through the piles of rubble slowly, past other people exploring the wall inscriptions and random artifacts among the rubble. He wasn't interested in any of that. He just wanted to see the place where Raikou, Entei and Suicune were born, he continued through the lower floors, climbing another ladder down as he caught another glimpse of the shoulder length red hair and the black fleece coat.

He broke into a sprint for a moment, trying to catch up to whom he presumed was Silver until he reached the bottom floor, giving up and continuing his explorations. He found himself in a room with huge crater made of multiple levels in the center. He couldn't even see the bottom. He walked towards the rim, locating and taking one of the e small paths down towards the bottom, finding his way using the torch and his hands.

He felt the earth underneath his foot loosed and crumble as he stepped down from the fifth terrace, shifting under him and carrying him downwards to the bottom of the crater in a massive landslide. He felt dirt climbing over his chest and immediately pulled his mask up, using it to keep his mouth safe as first covered half his body, one of his ultra-balls already in his hand. He moved his wrist as much as he could with his arm trapped in dirt for the most part, releasing Aura, who promptly dug him out once the dirt stopped shifting.

He stood up slowly, petting the bipedal canine and brushed himself off shakily as he saw Silver again. This time, the boy was sitting in front of three statues, one of each beast, in the center of the crater, working on a computer.

Ethan moved forward quietly, thanking the gods Silver hadn't noticed him, releasing his other Pokemon except for Canis and Specter, who might have held a grudge against him and walking forward. He pressed on, stepping towards Silver as he noticed the headphones in the boy's ears.

He readied himself to do what he was planning. Silver was Team Rocket. He couldn't let the fact that what he was doing was seemingly harmless go by anyway. Silver had admitted it himself. He curled both hands into fists and shouted.

"HEY SILVER!" He shouted, his voice echoing through the floor and causing the target to look up.

"The hell are you doing here!?" Silver shouted in reply, closing in on him after setting his computer down, revealing a bold red R logo on it.

"Exploring. What are you trying to pull this time?" Ethan retorted, Blur standing by his side with Leviathan by the other as Silver released a Meganium and a Weavile to stand by his.

"I'm not going to harm the people of Ecruteak, so buzz off. Maybe the tower, but not the people." He sneered, turning back to his computer and swearing, picking the machine up and throwing it up and the crater. Needless to say, it broke.

"I'm not going to let you damage state property! Are you even a Johtan?" Ethan snapped, motioning for his three Pokemon to attack as an all-out battle broke out between Meganium, Weavile, Blur, Leviathan and Aura, Aura and Leviathan taking on Weavile, leaving Meganium to Blur.

' _Aura, get this to the others as well! You hit Weavile in the side and knock him down for Leviathan to finish off, and Blur needs to tackle Meganium's petals first!'_ Ethan explained through aura as he felt the earth vibrate, Silver recalling his Pokemon and pulling a rope out of his pocket.

"I'm out!" he shouted, sneering as the rope coiled into the earth and he disappeared.

Ethan reached for his own bag, thrown back the sudden Earthquake when he saw it happen. The statues were all mid motion, Raikou in a curving jump, Entei with his paws in the air, and Suicune charging.

Ethan watched as stone chips flew off the statue of Raikou, every bit of stone flying outwards as with a flash of light, it left Raikou staring at him in all its grace as a bolt of lightning hit the ground hard, Ethan saved by his sneakers. He recalled his Pokemon immediately, standing extremely still as Raikou examined him.

The canine like beast was… regal and majestic. Its body was lean, made to be lethal, yellow fur covering all of its body except its chest, which was white, and the fur around its head, which was also white. A black stone like mask covered the crest of its head, blue fur extending around its mouth in sparks, two huge saber like fangs extending from its mouth. Upon its back was a mane of purple, a living storm cloud attached to it. Entei's statue started to glow, stone chips flying off it in a repeat of the earlier process. The stone slowly erupted, leaving Entei standing there as a pillar of lava erupted in front of it, falling to the ground and cooling to stone right there.

Entei was more proud looking, long thick, reddish brown fur covering its body except the neck, which was white. A three spiked crown like structure sat above its eyes, spikes of red fur next to them and descending a bit. Under its eyes, sort of like a mustache, was a protrusion of grey fur. Atop is back were two miniature wing like structures of grey and a white billowing cape of sorts. Oddly enough, its ankles had shackles around them.

Ethan stood in shock as the two beasts stared at him, waiting for Suicune to be free. Something seemed to be stopping it. Then all of a sudden, the stone went flying from Suicune and revealed it. Unlike the other two, nothing happened.

Suicune was the most majestic of the trio, looking more for show than for battle. Short blue fur coated its equine body, its chest and neck white from the front. Diamonds of white were patterned on its flanks and a hexagonal structure of blue sat above its eyes, a purple man billowing from its neck. Two ribbons of white in place of a tail extended from the back, floating at its side. Oddly enough, nothing seemed to happen.

Then it roared. Ethan vaguely heard the sound of rushing water, and then the three beasts leapt into the air, disappearing as the chamber flooded, a massive wave knocking Ethan out and carrying him away.

…

He woke up on the ground, staring at the sky as he coughed up water, Leviathan next to him, looking thoroughly drenched. He sat up carefully, looking around him. He was sitting outside the tower, and from what he could see, a huge, blue, metallic Pokemon with four arms was levitating in front of the tower, and a massive body of water was swirling higher into the air through its power towards the clouds.

From what he could tell, the Pokemon was forcing the atmosphere to evaporate and absorb the water to use as rain later. There would be one hell of a storm anyway. He looked around to see Steven Stone standing in front of the tower, directing the metallic Pokemon.

He stood up slowly, coughing a bit. Once he was stable, he walked over to Steven at a slow steady pace. He finally reached him, tapping him on the shoulder as he recalled the metallic Pokemon.

"Ethan! Were you inside?" Steven exclaimed, gripping his arms and examining him as Ethan nodded shakily.

"What happened!?" he asked as a Dragonite roared nearby, the sound traveling further than the gulf. "Actually, that would be Lance, save this for when he's here. Are you okay?"

Ethan nodded again, steadying himself and speaking.

"Yeah, and I can tell you what happened. First however, I accept your offer to be your apprentice."

Steven broke out into a smile, leading Ethan to a tree stump to sit down.

"Great. Once you've figured out what date you'll be in Olivine, tell me! It looks like Lance is here. We had better get ready." Steven remarked as the Dragonite which had roared earlier approached, setting it's trainer down and flying away.

The man walking towards them was black body armor lined with red, a cape attached to his shoulders, his red hair spiked upwards. His face was young, not more than twenty three years old, and his eyes were a deep blue. This was Lance, the champion of the Indigo Region, Dragon Master.

"Steven! What happened here!?" He called out, approaching them carefully.

"I don't know. Ethan however, does." Steven replied, gesturing to Ethan, who raised a hand.

"Let's first get him dry, shall we. To the Pokemon center." Lance stated simply as the Dragonite circled back in, picking all four of them, Leviathan include, and putting them on his back to carry to the Pokemon center, depositing them a second later.

"I take it you have a room already if you don't have your bag?" Steven asked once they were inside as Ethan nodded. "Dry off and come to the coffee shop across the street."

Ethan nodded again, walking slowly to his room and ducking into the restroom to dry off and change. He did so, sitting in front of the heater in the room for a minute before heading out again to the aforementioned shop.

He walked inside, looking around to see Steven sitting next to a man in a hood. It made sense. Lance was too well known in Johto… And Kanto.

Ethan walked up to them and extended a hand in greeting as both wordlessly shook it before leading him outside. Steven reached for his belt, releasing the metallic Pokemon again and giving Ethan a chance to examine it. It looked like it was made up of blue gemlike, translucent stone, with two red eyes, and a metal cross across the face of its hexagonal body, four arms protruding downwards from it.

"Metagross, Indigo League Headquarters." Steven instructed as a flash of light enveloped them, and without the sick feeling from last time, the appeared in a hall which should have belonged in a castle.

"Thanks." Steven recalled Metagross as Lance removed the hood, walking forward, Steven following. In turn, Ethan followed Steven down to an office. Wandering around the room stacked with papers were three young draconic Pokemon, two of which Ethan recognized, a Gible, and a Bagon. The third was unknown to him, a young Pokemon with two axe like protrusions form its mouth.

"Sit, please." Lance suggested as he moved around his desk, sitting down as the three young Pokemon ran to him.

"Now… Ethan, if you could explain what exactly happened there." Lance asked, leaning back as Ethan took a deep breath and began.

"I was exploring the depths of the Burnt Tower, and then I caught a glimpse of a boy named Silver. I've met him once before and I know he works for Team Rocket. You'll have heard of the Slowpoke well incident. I was there. I defeated Rocket Admin Proton's Pokemon, I'm assuming he was carrying weak ones, and then Silver's Ghastly turned on him and saved me the trouble of the fighting him. I now own the same Ghastly, who is now a Haunter." Ethan paused to take a breath as Lance gestured for him to go on.

"I chased him down to the bottom level and lost track of him, until I reached the crater in the middle. After I reached the bottom, I found him sitting there with an R labeled laptop, working. He got frustrated, broke the laptop, and then I engaged him in battle. About halfway through, an earthquake started and he fled. I tried to reach for my bag but the earthquake tripped me up."

"Then, the statue of Raikou started glowing, and stone chips flew out and Raikou came to life. A bolt of lightning hit the ground. The same thing happened with Entei, except a pillar of lava erupted and cooled. When Suicune was freed, nothing happened. Then it sort of roared, and they fled and the chamber flooded. That's all I remember." Ethan finished to the wide eyes of the champions.

"The three beasts are awake!?" Lance shouted, standing up. "Oh crap. Well, it's not really bad. They are the guardians of Johto."

He sighed, sitting back down. "Thank you for your time. Steven if you could send him off, I'd like to discuss this with you and the others."

Steven nodded, raising a hand in his direction and releasing Metagross, who promptly teleported Ethan away. Ethan found himself standing in front of the Pokemon Center again, as he walked in to go to his room. It had been a long day.


	6. A Greater Truth

**Chapter 6: A Greater Truth**

 **A/N: Haylo, and I have changed my name from Alfa19 to Spironax. So I took a bit of a hiatus from writing. I originally intended it to be until the end of my winter break, but then stuff came up. In any case, to those who have been reading this from before this chapter's publish date, thank you for waiting.** **NOTE** **: I may screw around with the heights of Pokemon if they seem inappropriate (i.e. Nidoking: 4'07" I think, I may be a couple of inches off)**

…

Ethan stood up, walking out of the waiting room as the unmanned doors to the path to Mortimer, the gym leader of Ecruteak City, opened. He walked forward, his heartbeat the only sound apart from the echo of his footsteps.

He stared into the darkness, seeing candle flames far on, flickering in what seemed to be fog. Ethan pressed his hands against the ultra-balls on his belt, seeking reassurance. He had once been told by his older sister that Morty's challenge was the most infuriating in Johto, second in the world only to that of Lieutenant Surge of Kanto.

What seemed to be a candle with eyes approached him, carrying a scroll with its ghostly energy. Ethan stared at it for a moment, remembering it as a Pokemon he had seen once when they had visited his sister in Unova, a Litwick. Finally, he took the scroll from it, unbinding it and reading it in the ghostly light it cast over the charred paper.

' _Welcome to my labyrinth challenger. You may see no walls and wonder what I am saying. This is a labyrinth, which does not require a good sense of direction, there are three paths, all of which converge at the end and lead to me. But it requires a good memory. Imagine a labyrinth without the walls, and the area underneath the walls. A series of walkways. The area where there would be walls is a ghostly void, which will transport you back to where I am assuming you are standing now. The lights will extinguish as you pass them, if they are unmanned, or if you defeat the trainer holding them. The paths are about a meter wide. Do not walk with your Pokemon, as the floors are not meant for that purpose beyond this point._

 _Good Luck,_

 _Mortimer Specter'_

"Time to get going." Ethan muttered to himself as the Litwick floated off with the scroll, the light vanishing.

Ethan gingerly stepped forward, feeling the hard surface beneath his feet and walking forward slowly. He could see a light dead ahead, about twenty meters on. He continued carefully, slowly walking through the straight to the light. He found a note tied to the candle, not a Litwick this time, and a coarse strip of cloth tied to it.

' _Sometimes, it is better not to rely on your eyes, nor your feet, but your intuition.'_

Ethan frowned, pocketing the bandanna. He looked forward to see what seemed to be a corner and path going left to a candle from the darkness. He walked on, hearing the candle go out with a whisper. The sudden darkness shrouding him made him shiver, fear momentarily coursing through his body before it exited. Fear was a dark type's weapon. It was only used briefly by ghosts.

He walked forward, turning left from memory and heading towards the candle. He passed it as it went out, leaving him in the darkness as well. He stepped forward again, taking three steps safely. Then on the fourth step, he felt a sickening sensation in his gut as the world twisted around him, taking him back to the beginning.

He sighed, trying his best not to get exasperated early. He pressed on, taking the same path back but turning where he had fallen victim to Morty's trap earlier. Another few minutes and another few extinguished lights, not to mention three more pulls back to the beginning left him wanting to reach out and punch something. Lucy was right. It was straight out infuriating.

He put one hand in his pocket, finding the forgotten strip of cloth by accident and pulling it out. The words on the note drifted back to his mind as he stared on it. Mentally going over it, he tied the strip of cloth over his eyes, feeling a warm sense of approval from one of his Ultra Balls. He nodded to himself, gingerly stepping forward as he made his way all the way to the first turning.

He nearly turned, but then he remembered the words on the slip of paper and stopped. Thinking for a minute, he stepped forward walking on, no traps in his way, nor any drops into the void floor. He pulled the cloth off, both greatly impressed, and put off by Morty's trick. He walked on, without hesitance, for a few minutes, through the fog before he emerged on a platform, lit by three candles, with a single illuminated path leading up to a higher platform, Morty sitting down on a chair on it.

Ethan walked up to him, handing him the cloth and glaring at him halfheartedly. The blond haired gym leader on the other hand, broke out into a grin.

"Wonderful! So you figured it out?" Morty greeted him, his purple sweater and headband making him look like he should have been at a country club playing tennis. If it wasn't for the Banette on his shoulder, Ethan would seriously have doubted him to be a master of the ghost type.

"Um…. By the way, I'm Mortimer Specter, gym leader of Ecruteak City, but I assume you already knew that. Might I ask your name?" the gym leader went on, standing up and cocking his head.

"My name is Ethan Photon. Three badges." Ethan replied, swearing he could have seen a spark in the young gym leader's eyes.

"Ok then, two on two. Let's begin shall we. Challenger draws first, I can't switch out, and this will be a double battle." Morty dictated the rules, laying his hands down on his belt. "First to knock out both enemy Pokemon wins."

Ethan nodded as he felt the sickening feeling in his gut again, being wrenched out of the gym to what he had expected to be another room, a battlefield. Instead, he found himself out in the open, in the middle of golden trees, shedding as though it was autumn. He looked around to see the lines of a battlefield marked everywhere, the area serene for the beginning of January.

Ethan readied his Pokemon, releasing Canis and Leviathan onto the field in a spur of the moment decision. Specter would have been the better choice for a single battle. He wasn't sure how well Specter would be able to work with others in a double battle never practiced before. Canis and Leviathan however, formed the perfect clash of water and fire, and would be a bit hard to work with, but since they didn't hate each other, could really pay off.

"Interesting matchup. If you use them well, I'm going to have a tough time. Hmm…. Misdreavus! Shuppet! Take the field!" Morty released two Pokemon, one a Johto native that Ethan recognized, a Misdreavus, and the other a Hoenn Pokemon, a Shuppet, which Ethan remembered from an old book evolved into Banette, like the one sitting on Morty's shoulder. "Your move."

"Canis, Leviathan, work together and follow my instructions. You can't see the whole field at once while you're battling, so you'll have to trust me and each other. Now, ranged water gun, followed into by a flame wheel!" Ethan instructed them as they moved away from him, looking at each other for a moment before executing his commands.

Leviathan fired off a water gun at Shuppet and Misdreavus, easily avoided, but followed by Canis's Flame wheel, which turned it into steam, confusing the ghosts and landing a moderate hit on both, considering the backlash from spinning with fire on your back.

"Good thinking. Miss, Shuppet, shadow barrage!" Morty called out as the ghost types bounced back from Canis's attack, releasing a quick charged barrage of shadow ball attacks, the spheres hurtling towards Ethan's Pokemon.

He shouted out in time for Leviathan to avoid the brunt of the attack, taking a few hits. Canis was still spinning and easily avoided them all on the other hand.

"Canis! Fire ring around you and charge up solar beam! Leviathan, stay back and barrage them for now!" he called out as his Pokemon moved next to each other, going together as the Typhlosion set up a ring of fire around them about five feet high, the seven foot plus gator easily firing off water attacks over it.

Ethan watched as the rays of sunlight being drawn into the flames slowly died down, Canis invisible behind the flames. Misdreavus and Shuppet were charging in what seemed to be a very complicated maneuver.

"NOW! Hatch plan C!" Ethan shouted, both a good plan and a psychological trick. By saying plan C, he was attempting to trick Morty into thinking he had run out of options, when in reality, he had just been thinking of something that had started with C when he had conceived the maneuver.

Leviathan fired a high pressure beam of water onto the ground right outside the fire, turning it into mud before jumping over the flames and sliding out across the mud, launching a constant stream of water.

The level of the flames rose as the ghost types charged recklessly into the fire, unable to stop, the ring vanishing after burning them to reveal a missing fire type. Then Canis burst out of the ground at a high speed, surprising and hitting the currently materialistic Shuppet before firing a Solar Beam off at the two ghost, who by the virtue of being pressed against each other, were lined up perfectly for the light beam to phase through and damage them.

"Leviathan, your time to shine!" Ethan shouted as the Feraligatr fired off a high pressure water gun at them, a mock attempt of Hydro Pump, hitting the ghost's surfaces, burning from the light, which was basically cutting someone with a long and sharp knife, and then pouring a salt shaker into the wound.

"I'm not giving up, Shuppet, Misdreavus, last resort!" Morty called out as his Pokemon retreated to his side of the field. Suddenly, Shuppet seemed to collapse, and Misdreavus was energized as it fired off a supercharged shadow ball with a diameter the height of a door.

Ethan cried out as his Pokemon took the hit, unable to move in time, leaving smoke trailing form both of them, each weak. He could have sworn he saw Leviathan holding something though.

"Water gun! Fire spin!" Ethan watched as his Pokemon fired off attacks, not bothering with coordination now.

Both weak hits hit Misdreavus, but had another effect. The ground under Misdreavus turned to sludge, and glowing purple stone surface, its energy resonating as Misdreavus began to diffuse a purplish glow.

Ethan watched, sighing with acceptance as the dusk stone reacted with Misdreavus, the little ghost dissociating into purple particles and multiplying before it formed back together into a Mismagius.

"Miss! You evolved! Now let's take him on!" Morty shouted, grinning as Ethan narrowed his gaze. He reached for his phone, scanning Mismagius as it waited for a moment to recover from the sudden evolution.

' _Mismagius. This thing can create illusions that don't affect the real world, but entrap the subject. They can be fought out off. But… try not to get stuck in one in the first place.'_

Ethan nodded to himself before realizing it was pointless and turning to his Pokemon.

"Back to back! It's an illusionist!" he shouted as his Pokemon retreated, standing back to back as the world around them began to shift until Canis and Leviathan were left standing on a platform in a void.

Ethan watched, unable to relay commands into the illusion he was watching through a divide, taking pride in how his Pokemon, if not at first, but at some point, started strategizing to work together and beat Mismagius. He saw the ghost type pepper them with attacks, wearing them out even as it took well thought out strikes, the illusion slowly fading.

Ethan's voice finally reached the field as the illusion faded away, Canis collapsed on the field, Leviathan and Mismagius on the brink of fainting as well. Ethan saw Leviathan's hand reach up to its jaws for a moment before it took heed of him.

"Leviathan, Jet stream!" Ethan shouted, simply naming a different way of firing water gun as the gator didn't respond.

Instead, it opened its jaw and four streams of water exited, rotating to outline a column as they spiraled around and into Mismagius, knocking it out.

"Good job! It looks like your Feraligatr found a left over!" Morty called out as they recalled their Pokemon, reappearing in the gym.

He walked over to Ethan, pulling something out of his pocket.

"Here you go, the fog badge." He handed him a flat metal badge with a purple surface shaped like a ghost. Ethan handed him his trainer tag in return, the gym leader using the machine press in the corner to emboss the badge into it.

"Good luck on your journey, and take a staff from the entrance, it can get a bit rough past Ecruteak." Morty instructed him as Ethan stepped onto the void purposely, reappearing at the entrance. He looked around, seeing a rack full of plain wooden staffs, both ends the same.

He picked a stout and long but moderately thin one, walking out of the building. He took a look around the city before walking back to the Pokemon center to collect his belongings and get Canis and Leviathan in fit shape for the journey west.

Random thoughts flickered in his head as he approached the building, the glass doors opening automatically. He walked over to the line, waiting. The news screen's volume seemed to be switched off mute for once, an important discussion taking place on air. He glanced at the headline, his eyes widening as he saw Lorelei, former Elite Four member of Indigo, and current leader of Sevii under Indigo, talking to the anchors.

He handed his Pokemon to the nurse and scanned his trainer ID, heading to his room quickly to catch the rest of the talk. He entered, finding the person he was bunking with, another boy his age by the name of Ren, sitting on his bunk watching the talk. With a nod in greeting, Ethan sat down on his own bunk, eyes and ears on the TV.

" _Lorelei, how would you describe the situation as it is in the Unified Regions, and what might come to pass?"_ The news anchor, a young woman with blond hair and piercing eyes asked.

" _Caroline. The situation in the Unified Regions so far is tense. They don't have enough Rangers these days to guard themselves if anything on a large scale happens, after all the catastrophes they've been through. As far as I know, Oblivia only has three Rangers! There is unrest within the regions, and unless they work together, they will become very vulnerable. As to what will come to pass, the future is hard to see. But if Almia gets dragged into a dispute, Indigo moves with it, for we do have a hand in this, and the Almians have been staunch supporters of our own Regional Alliance."_ Lorelei replied, turning to look out the window behind them momentarily before the anchor went back to speaking.

" _Thank you Lorelei, for your time and opinions. It has been an honor to speak with you like this. This is Indigo Transnational News, and we'll be right back with the weather."_ The anchor turned towards the camera as the segment ended, leaving Ethan's thoughts churning.

"What do you think is going to happen?" Ren turned towards him, looking at him apprehensively.

"I don't know. All I know is that the world might change very soon." Ethan sighed, taking his bag and walking out of the room. He entered the main hall of the Center and collecting his Pokemon.

A shiver ran through his spine as he walked out into the cold damp winter day. He walked onwards, going to the west exit of the city and leaving. Route thirty eight was fairly dull. There wasn't really much to it at all. Ethan walked down the beginning of the road until he reached the end of the flat plains.

He looked across the horizon at the hilly terrain, ledges and trees making the traversing of the route much more fun than it would have been. There weren't many Pokemon on route 38, and all of them were common, which made it all the more boring. Ethan could feel the sun beating down on his neck from behind him as he looked back East so he could get out a pair of sunglasses without having to squint. He pulled out his frameless shades, slipping them on and turning back to the sun, walking off the end of the road and onto the beaten path, reaching for Aura's ultra-ball.

He released the bipedal cub onto a tree branch, from where it promptly dropped down to the ground, landing without a sound.

' _Hello. Where are we headed today?'_ The canine asked, turning towards Ethan and walking alongside him.

"A city called Olivine. It's a good three or four days trek west of here, and we need to keep moving. We got our fourth badge, and now we're on our way out to the next one. This one, hopefully, if you train hard, will be your time to shine again. The gym leader of Olivine City is a steel type master, which means it's you and Canis for sure, if you can catch up." Ethan replied, stopping for a moment and picking up a few pebbles.

He held them out to Aura, speaking again.

"I want you to train to expand your capacity for aura usage, and to increase efficiency. Levitate these while walking, and keep on practicing random actions with them. Every time one becomes easy, which should be after a few hours of practice, add more pebbles to the mix." Ethan instructed Aura, confused for a moment where the suggestion came from.

Aura accepted the stones, choosing to levitate them first in a circle, then begin a rotation, picking up speed constantly to put strain on himself. Ethan continued to walk, shifting out of focus and boarding the train of thought.

He was to start off as Steven Stone's apprentice, which meant he would like to train hard and try and get not just Jasmine's badge, but Chuck of Cianwood's badge as well. He couldn't disappoint someone of such high standings, whom had asked him to be his student for a while.

Other than that, his mind drifted to what he had seen on the TV earlier. Conditions in the unified Regions were tense, the shortage of able rangers a great hindrance for their struggling economy. As it was, Kalos was exploring into them with more liberty than the governments would like. They were probing around the natural resources and trying slowly to get shares in them. There was a chance that they might attempt a full annexation of them, which could at the very best lead to a cold war.

Ethan's attention switched to Aura as he saw that he wasn't just adding more stones to the rotating ring, which would have been easy, but had replaced the pebbles with proper rocks and had built up multiple rings of them by this point, trying to keep the rotating layers of the tower in check. He looked around, seeing other trainers camping by a grove, roasting their lunch over a spitfire emerging from a young Charmeleon's mouth.

He walked on past them, stepping over the huge pile of dry branches left at the top of a hill. He winced slightly as the loud cracking noise echoed across the hilly terrain, causing a few heads to turn his way. He looked down for a moment, continuing on as Aura hopped and skipped around on one foot of its own volition. Ethan sighed, walking on continuously until maybe four in the afternoon, Riolu having amassed an eight foot tower of rotating stones by this point, with the same radius as a football.

He sat down on a tree stump, releasing his Pokemon into the surrounding area and taking a looked at them. Canis was in good condition, healthy and fit, flames flickering on the back of his neck. He turned around to groom his coat a little bit before lying down. Leviathan was in tip top shape, his scales glistening and his jaws cranking easily without a noise, except when they collided.

Blur was physically fit, but he was showing signs of flakes to come in his exoskeleton, something which slightly worried Ethan. Specter, on the other hand, was radiating darkness, the slight gaseous rim around him shrunken to barely visible and nearly as dark as his metaphysical form.

Aura was sitting on a branch, rotating the tower of stones while slowly shifting them to the right, before suddenly dropping them into a hollow tree with a bang, jumping off the branch to rest. Ethan smiled at how energetic the little cub was, bringing a good bit of activeness to the rest of the team.

"Okay guys, we're on our way west now, heading to the Olivine Port. There, gym is a steel type one, so that puts Blur out of the running right off the bat. Sorry, but I don't want your energy wasted." Ethan turned apologetically to the bug, who merely nodded.

"Canis is definitely in the running, we just need to work on a few counter measures for dual types, and Aura, if we pick up this pace for the next few days alongside training, you should be able to face her too. The last Pokemon, well that depends on progress at the time." Ethan finished, opening his notes for what he wanted his Pokemon to work on.

"Canis, today you'll be working on solar beam. It isn't very hard to learn, you already know how to catch and re use heat, so working with light shouldn't be hard. If we can get it down quickly, we'll work on charge time and combinations. Specter, sucker punch. It's going to be a brilliant gift in battle, especially since your defense to contact, that it special categorized attacks, is weak." Ethan nodded in the direction of the two Pokemon in question, turning to his next two Pokemon.

"Blur, you're going to be sparring with Aura, and trying to get some practice in on shadow claw. This will definitely take a while. Aura, work on avoiding getting hit as best you can, and on your hand to hand combat. Draw on fighting contact force to develop your own attacks if need be. And lastly, Leviathan, I want your focus on rain dance."

The water type looked at him confusedly as his other Pokemon already set out to start.

"I know you already know it. I want you to concentrate it on a smaller spot, with all the force of your previous one, so say you could focus it on a well and fill it like that." Ethan snapped his fingers, Leviathan slowly wrapping his head around it and nodding.

"When we've got power down with ease, then I'll work more on that. What you do right now is work on it. When Canis has Solar Beam down, you'll practice near him to make it harder for him, his next training regimen. Good. Now set up shop and get to work." Ethan finished as Leviathan un-hunched, picking up huge stones and building a small tower to focus on filling with water, with leak holes all around it.

"Go." Ethan shouted to the gator standing on a high stone, whom began. Low rain clouds began to gather, a slight drizzle starting off as Leviathan frowned, pushing them all together and putting up a good bit of rain right over the tower.

"Yes, now increase the strength. You've got leaks all around the tower. By the time we're done with this, if it works, you'll be able to fill the tower faster than the water can leak out." Ethan encouraged him, walking over to Aura and Blur who were sparring with each other, fighting with hands and blades. Aura was missing most of Blur's hits, avoiding quite a few, and being hit a fair bit. Blur on the other hand was having trouble with shadow claw.

"Blur, I want you to feel for your soul and draw from that. Its spiritual energy that should be focused in the receptacle. First work on that." Ethan instructed, walking away to Specter next.

"Specter, infuse the boulder with energy first, then work on using your own energy to both damage the stone and through that wound absorb energy." Ethan looked up from the descriptions in his phone and looked back at Specter, who was currently pouring ghostly energy into the boulder.

Finally, he walked over to Canis, seeing the fire type with arms raised slightly, focusing as the vents on his neck died down, sunlight seemingly focusing on them. Ethan watched as the sunlight angled towards the fire type slowly, being absorbed into its body as an orb of light started to form in Canis's paws, growing slowly.

Ethan smiled. He was about to say a few words of encouragements when the orb blew up in Canis's hands, releasing only smoke. The fire type looked at him and shrugged, turning back towards the grove and absorbing light again slowly. Ethan watched, biting his lip.

Sweat beaded up on his brow slowly as the sphere grew to the size of a grapefruit before it collapsed into a weak solar beam and fired off at a tree, naturally not damaging it.

Ethan smiled and stepped back as Canis began forming another one, pushing it slightly further than the previous attempt. He watched, the hair on his arms standing up in the chill of the late afternoon. IT wasn't anywhere near as cold as it would have been had he gone east, but still, it was chilly.

The orb in Canis's hands grew slowly, surpassing that of the previous one and reaching the size of a watermelon before firing it off.

"Good work Canis! Take your time with capacity first, then with speed." Ethan suggested as he watched again.

Canis readied the sphere slowly, going up to the size of a basketball this time and waiting. Ethan frowned, mulling over what Canis was doing without interrupting. After a few more moments, Canis fired. This beam was much more powerful than the last one, and it clicked then why Canis had been waiting. The size of the sphere did dictate the strength, but it was spread out as well. Canis was concentrating more energy into one smaller size to create the powerful impact Solar Beam was known for.

"Great work buddy! For today, I just want you to practice generating it without blowing it up and firing off at that power." Ethan smiled, walking back to Specter, whom was still standing there, trying to suck the energy out of the boulder with sucker punch.

"Okay…." Ethan opened his phone, checking Brendan's entry on the move.

 _If you're teaching it to a ghost type, tell them to do what they would when swallowing a soul, but with their fists, that just sucks energy out. I don't really know about any other types._

Ethan sighed, doubting it for a moment before he turned to Specter, who seemed to have made no progress.

"Okay buddy, I want you to do what you would if you were sucking out a soul, but through your fist." Ethan instructed him, sitting down as it clicked to him why his bag was feeling abnormally heavy. He had a bike.

The Haunter nodded, pressing its hands together and then lashing out at the boulder with one, fists glowing. Something blew up, sending smoke every which way.

"Specter? What did you do?" Ethan coughed, waving away the smoke before the ghost type sucked it all in.

He cackled and raised his hands, doing a backflip before facing the rock again.

"One more try, and if it doesn't do anything at all, we go back to what we were doing in the beginning."

"Sometimes I really don't trust him at all, but he's always right." Ethan murmured the last part to himself, watching as Specter focused for a moment before lashing out again. This time, Ethan could have sworn he saw a wisp of energy flow up Haunter's hand as a tiny depression formed on the boulder.

"Do you feel any more energized?" Ethan asked as Specter nodded vigorously, shaking his hands and punching the rock again.

Ethan stepped back as Specter set back to work, absorbing energy, though barely any with every punch. He would need to work on that.

Then he walked back to Leviathan, who was still focusing on filling the well. He had managed to get a constant level of water around a few inches high, but this would require work. Finally, he walked over to Blur and Aura, who were still sparring, the little cub slowly picking up on its natural ability to sense incoming attacks and block them.

Blur was making progress with shadow claw. One blade was shimmering slightly with dark purple energy, the hint of an ongoing spectral force engaged in the claw.

"Good work everyone!" Ethan called out, stepping back and walking towards the stump again where his bag was propped up against the remaining wood.

"Late lunch!" he called out as his Pokemon stopped sparring and walked, floated or ran towards him. He reached into his bag, taking out five specially prescribed canisters of Pokemon food he kept for treks across routes which led to other routes and thus, longer journeys. For himself, he pulled packaged noodles out of the bag.

"Canis can you warm these up a little bit?" Ethan asked as he placed them in a row on a rock.

The fire type walked over to them as raised a low flame onto the rock, heating it and slowly, heating the cans evenly. A few minutes later, Ethan was sitting with his family, watching trainers below the hill move to and fro.

' _Friend-Trainer, the others have concerns they wish to voice. Something was instilled in them, even through their containers, in the tower, which makes them want to shed their specific names and return to their generic names.'_

"If that's what you guys want, then sure." Ethan shrugged, turning towards them as tension seemed to lift off them at his response. "You too Specter?"

' _No, I rather like my name.'_ the ghost cackled again, doing a backflip and floating higher into the sky as the sun started to sink.

"Okay then, let's just laze around for maybe fifteen minutes and then hit the road again, I want to reach the Miltank Farm within three more days, because they do offer rooms to travelling trainers, and although I like having the stars over my head, at this time of the year I wouldn't mind being in a bed." Ethan remarked, staring off into the horizon.

He picked up his bags and hoisted them onto his shoulder fifteen minutes later and stood up, recalling Typhlosion, Scyther, Specter and Feraligatr, keeping Riolu out with him for more exercise.

"Okay, Au- Riolu, you keep on going with your tower if you think you need to continue with that, but as it gets darker, I want you to be aware of our surroundings. We have maybe two more hours before the sun sets fully, but that's a bit early, so I want to walk for maybe an hour after sunset, without Typhlosion out. Tune into the surroundings." Ethan instructed as Riolu nodded, running circles around his legs as they continued on, keeping track of their surroundings and notifying him of incoming trainers and wild Pokemon.

For the most part he avoided trainers. He didn't want to waste daylight battling when he had already wasted three hours before sunset on training. It had shocked him how much time had gone by when he had stopped. Normally he would train with his Pokemon after stopping for the day. Typhlosion would light a fire and keep them all lit up and warm, and they could train without the worry of losing daylight on a long trek such as the one ahead.

Ethan walked on, watching the sun out of the corner of his eye as it set in the west, considering he was walking northwest, following the beaten path. By the end of the night, he found himself settling down around a quarter of the way through the Route.

It wasn't until two and a half days later that he found himself at the famous Miltank farm to the North East of the Olivine cape. He stood in front of the arched gates to the massive establishment, acres field he had walked past on his way joining up to where the multiple barns opened up.

A sign on the gate was flipped to vacancies, but no one seemed to be about the farms. He walked down the path to the farmhouse, climbing the steps of the massive porch to the door. He wrapped his hands around the huge brass knocker, hitting the door twice. He pressed his ear against the thick door, able to make out scurrying footsteps. He stepped back and waited. Moments later, the doors swung inwards. Standing in the doorframe was a short plump woman with bright orange hair. Her apron was covered with flour splatter, and her cheeks were rosy from the heat of an oven, presumably.

"Good afternoon lad! Are you looking for a room?" she asked him, panting slightly.

"Thank you ma'am. I am looking for a room if you have any. The sign out by the gate said you had vacancies." Ethan looked down at the hardwood floor for a moment.

"Why yes we do. Third floor, any of the rooms. They're all empty right now." She gestured towards the staircase at the end of the hallway, next to the doorway into the rest of the house.

Ethan nodded politely and walked down the hall and up the stairs. He walked into the first room on the third floor, a cozy little room with a fireplace and a single bed. He set his bags down, walking back downstairs.

"Excuse me ma'am, but how much is it for the night?" Ethan asked, reaching for his wallet.

"I can never remember the rate. Talk to my husband when he gets back." The woman, presumably the farmer's wife, replied, wiping her hands on her apron.

"I wonder… are you a Pokemon trainer?" She asked, looking at him with her head tilted. 

"Yes ma'am, I am." Ethan replied, pulling his jacket up from one side to reveal his belt.

"Are you a fresh trainer or do you have any badges?" She asked curiously, leaning on the counter in front of her.

"Four badges ma'am, on my way to my fifth and sixth." He replied, standing straight.

"Could you go and check on my husband for me? The Miltank are a little bit on edge for some reason and I don't want him getting hurt. Problem is they're the only Pokemon we have. He's out in barn four." She asked.

"Sure." Ethan shrugged, walking out to the fields again and going round the side of the building to the barn labeled four. It was in his line of sight when the doors flew off their hinges, a rampaging Miltank bulldozing out of the building, its kin following it as the farmer moved around the side of the broken wall.

…

Lance held onto Dragonite's scales as the dragon banked over the farm, giving him a clear view of the ground. He activated the binoculars in his goggles, giving him a clear view of the trainer on the ground. It clicked with him that it was the same trainer whom Steven had brought from the tower the other day. Something about the boy seemed familiar.

"Dragonite, stay in the air, but be ready to intervene." He shouted over the wind as the orange dragon roared its reply, circling as Lance watched.

…

Ethan stared at the Miltank for a moment before kicking into gear. He reached for his belt, releasing Riolu, Feraligatr and Scyther immediately as he stepped behind them, taking the staff Morty had given him off of his back. He knew the last measure was probably pointless, but it was still ever so slightly reassuring.

"Riolu guard the farmer, Scyther, Feraligatr, calm them down!" Ethan shouted, wielding the staff in right hand as he sprinted behind Riolu, trying to get to the farmer. He looked on as a Miltank charged the farmer, Riolu kicking it aside and getting on to defending him.

Ethan swore loud enough to turn the farmer's head slightly as he noticed a Miltank barreling straight at him, none of his Pokemon close enough to help him. He jumped, pushing himself a few extra inches as he rammed the end of the staff into the charging Pokémon's side, the overall force sending it careening into a wall as he deflected a horn with one side of the staff, the movement coming naturally.

He jumped up again, using the staff as a pole vault to rise over the Miltank and eventually onto it after knocking aside dangerously positioned horns with the staff.

…

Lance watched from the sky, binoculars to his goggles as he watched the boy guard himself with swift, fluid movements, the style uncomfortably familiar to him. The kid wasn't more than sixteen years old and he was adept with what he recognized as one of the staffs he had ordered Mortimer to give trainers leaving Ecruteak City. And he had met the kid in Ecruteak a few days back.

He watched as the boy sprinted across the field in intervals, defending himself with new found confidence when necessary and making his way to the farmer and his Riolu, his other two Pokemon wrapping themselves around the situation and subduing the Miltank as he stopped by the farmer.

"Dragonite! Descent!" Lance shouted over the wind, his oldest companion roaring in reply.

…

Ethan brushed his pants off, still holding the staff in one hand as Riolu stepped away from the farmer, a lanky man in his forties.

"Aye lad, thank you. I may have met my maker if it wasn't for you." He greeted Ethan, extending a hand. "Clyne Hawthorne. Farmer."

"Ethan Photon, Pokemon trainer. No problem. Your wife actually sent me to check on you after I asked about the rate for the night." Ethan replied, stretching and looking up to see a slowly growing orange blot high up in the sky.

"Forget the fare lad. You done saved my hide that's all. Tonight we feast like-"Hawthorne was cut off by a blood piercing howl as a shadow leaped out of the trees nearby and shot at Ethan.

Before, Ethan had known what he was doing with the staff, even if he was surprised at how easy it was. As shadow shot at him however, faster than his Pokemon could charge, he lashed out with the staff, snapping the wooden rod between the now visible Houndoom's jaws, unyielding before he pulled it out and slammed it into its sides repeatedly in a three swift motions before ramming it into the dark type's back as a stream of water shot in his direction from Feraligatr and knocked it out.

Hawthorne just stared as with an impact, the orange blot landed in the field near them, a rider disembarking the massive Dragonite and approaching them. Ethan recalled Lance's face as he whipped off his goggles, walking towards them.

"Ethan was it? You fight well for a teenager. My apologies for not being able to descend faster. Farmer Hawthorne." Lance nodded his greeting to the farmer, turning towards Ethan.

"Thank you sir." Ethan dipped his head in respect as Lance looked at him oddly.

"Is your father a soldier by any chance?" Lance asked, his gaze piercing Ethan's soul.

"Yes sir. He was." Ethan replied, his voice low.

"What was his name?" Lance asked, the answer piecing itself together in his mind.

"Nicholas Photon sir." Ethan replied, head held high as Lance's eyes widened for a moment before retracting to their previous size.

"…" Lance stayed silent for a moment after he opened his mouth before closing it, turning to the farmer again. "No… not who you remind me off. Sadly, I did not know your father."

Ethan stared at him quizzically before turning to the farmer for a moment and then walking off back to the entrance of the farmhouse, Lance and the farmer on the same track after a brief conversation.

…

Later the same evening…

Ethan toweled his hair dry and straightened his shirt, laying his belt. He looked around the room for a minute before walking down to the lounge, to find Lance sitting there by the fire, talking to someone else, the second person's chair back towards Ethan, but his voice was familiar.

Lance saw him and stopped talking, quietening down as the other person craned his neck around the chair to see him. Steven Stone happened to be sitting in the other chair, talking to Lance.

"Oh, Ethan! Lance was just telling me about what happened earlier. It may have been dark pulses from the Houndoom causing the Miltank to misbehave." Steven stood up, shaking his hand firmly as Ethan simply nodded, sitting down in a chair opposite the fire as Lance stood up.

"I have to be going now. It was good of you to meet here so we could talk Steven." Lance nodded, walking out swiftly.

The room was silent for a few minutes as Ethan held his hands out to the fire, heating them up a little bit before he turned back to Steven.

"Did you know my father? Nicholas Photon?" Ethan asked, staring at the fire.

"…Yes. I did." Steven sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"He wasn't just a soldier was he? Lance asked me who my father was… And he claimed not to know him, but I get the feeling he did. The story was a bit patchy from the day we were told we'd lost him." Ethan replied, turning to face Steven.

"Ethan…. There is a greater truth behind all of this. Yes your father wasn't any ordinary soldier. But it isn't my place to tell you. Should you not know and a situation arises where it falls upon me to tell you everything, rest assured, I will. But for now, it isn't my place. Now go to sleep." Steven turned towards the fire, staring into the depths of the flame as Ethan rose wordlessly, going up the stairs to his room and lying down, his mind churning.

"A greater truth…." Ethan murmured to himself as he drifted to sleep, his dreams carrying him away for the night.


	7. The Iron Maiden

**Chapter 7: The Iron Maiden**

 **A/N: So….. Hi….. My apologies for taking this long. Let's just say I haven't had much time to write, or think of the plotline over the course of this year until now. I'm going to get myself back on track since the holidays have come around (a few days ago), and I can write without getting grilled as to why I'm wasting time on my computer instead of studying for my finals. In any case…. I'm going to do my best to improve my writing overtime. Please take a look at the prologue for my new and upcoming story, Wayfarer, explaining how the main character, Black, is plunged into a coma. The story resumes from his waking once it starts. Basically, the number of views on it is very depressing…. Please leave a review if you like the chapter/story, for any story of mine you read, because a review can be very encouraging, and not necessarily crushing, for a writer. All that aside, I present to you the next Chapter of Tale of a Legend. Voila.**

* * *

Ethan woke up in quite an uncomfortable position. He had managed to twist his body overnight so that his back was pressed against the wall next to the bed and his legs bent close to his stomach by pressing them against the backboard of the bed. Honestly he had no idea why he was in that position and nor could he remember what he had dreamt of last night.

He clambered out of the bed, groaning as he straightened his back, stretching his arms and legs. He managed to fit in a shower and change before he checked his watch and realized it was still six in the morning.

He sighed, leaving the room quietly and going down two flights of stairs before he heard activity downstairs. He crept halfway down the last flight of stairs, peeking down to see the table already set and all the curtains open, the farmer's wife already busy with her work.

He was about to walk back up the stairs to the third floor when he heard the door open and saw Steven walk in. He was dressed in a simple grey half sleeved t-shirt, the neck of which was drenched with sweat, and white running shorts. The clothes were close fitting, showing off his thin but stout figure, as he pulled earbuds out of his ears, unclipping his phone from his side and clicking away.

Ethan walked back downstairs, realizing that he was probably the last person to wake up at this point. He was on a farm for Arceus's sake, everyone here woke up early. He probably should have asked what time breakfast was. He decided to go down when he saw Steven sit down at the table, his sweat drying up now.

He walked down the remainder of the stairs casually, drawing up a chair and sitting next to Steven who as Ethan now noticed, wasn't really that tired. It seemed like he had barely broken a sweat. Maybe he had just been running for quite a while.

"Morning kiddo. What can I get you for breakfast?" The farmer's wife asked from behind a counter, the sizzling of a frying pan audible in the background. "Sausages, eggs, rolls, potatoes, pancakes, cheese, milk, cream, bread, fruit, or anything really."

"Just some rolls and a pile of sausages please. And some milk please." He replied, turning to Steven. "Good morning."

"And the same to you." Steven gritted his teeth, pulling his phone out and typing away, though what he was typing that was so long Ethan had no idea. "Sleep well?"

"Like a log."

Steven laughed, the first time Ethan had heard any loud noise exit his orifice with the exemption of the time outside the Tower. "I have to be in Olivine for my own reasons soon. As you can see I'm travelling there as well. I'll depart on my Skarmory soon, but won't be going there directly. I just came here to meet Lance."

Ethan nodded absentmindedly as a plate was set down in front of Steven, full of tater tots and rolls with some cheese and fresh fruit to the side. By it the farmer's wife set down a tall tumbler of fresh, creamy milk. The older man took a sip from the glass, somehow not leaving a ring around his lips before speaking again.

"It should take you about a day and a half more to reach Olivine's north eastern corner. It's a massive city, not an urban sprawl like Goldenrod, but quainter… Today is the eighth of June. I plan on being in Olivine between the fourteenth and the eighteenth. Meet me there. From there we begin our own journey across Johto, maybe across lands you've travelled, and for the most part across wilds untouched by most."

"You see, whilst I would love to train an apprentice, my time in Johto is limited and there's other business I'll have to carry out at some point. At most this gives us a window of a month, with some luck." Steven went on, talking to him as he dug into his meal. He looked up for a minute after he was met with silence, his steel grey eyes analyzing the somewhat miffed look with which Ethan was staring at the wooden surface of the table.

"What? Too little time?" He asked, continuing on with his breakfast, startling Ethan, whom had drifted off into his thoughts.

"No that's not an issue. Any time training with you is a blessing. What I'm confused about here is….. How do I put this…?" Ethan stopped for a moment, struggling to find the right way to phrase it as a glass of milk was set down in front of him along with his plate.

"Thank you. Steven let's put it this way, sir. I can trust you very easily. You're the Champion of Hoenn. But what makes you trust me. What makes you think you can take me on as an apprentice, in fact what made you take me on. Honestly I'm at a blank as to why you first gave a total stranger an egg, then offered to take him under your wing as your trainee." Ethan explained, picking up his glass and drinking.

"Ah…. That… I guessed it would come around to that eventually." Steven sighed, giving him the same look from the previous night by the fire.

"I'll just say this… I knew your father at one point. We met during our travels and we stayed in touch, through his service to the Indigo League." A hint of a smile formed around Steven's lips at the word service, slight enough that Ethan nearly missed it.

"At some point, once I've pondered upon things, I'll tell you everything I know about him. Only however if you develop into a sufficiently strong trainer to meet the requirements of the walk of life I intend to open to you. I'll ask you a question in return now. What is your ambition in life? Every trainer has traveled some stretch of land or sea with their companions at some point in their life but few make something of it." Steven's rebuke caught Ethan off guard as his fork missed every sausage in the plate by an inch.

"I want to become a powerful trainer. I want to take on the Indigo conference if I can and overtime get a chance to take on the Indigo League or join the Ace Trainer Corps." He replied, his resolve intact.

At this Steven smiled. "Then the path I will set you on, without a doubt, will be a strenuous one, but I will tell you one thing. It will unearth many answers for you, and twice as many mysteries. However, naught but a few things will go unanswered by the end of it, and those will be the things no one in history has ever answered."

"I'm going to ask what this path is." Ethan remarked, emptying his plate of the last roll.

"The very one you yourself wish to take. I intend to train you for the trials and challenges you will face in the path to become an Ace Trainer and eventually reach the Indigo League." Steven replied, dusting his hands off. "Now if you'll excuse me I have to wash up and be off. I have urgent business to attend to with Jasmine in Olivine City." And with that the silver haired man stood, reminding Ethan that despite his tapered speech he wasn't physically lacking either.

Ethan himself walked over to the sink, picking up a scrubbing sponge and getting to work on his plate before the farmer's wife scuttled over to him, snatching them from him and scolding him. He made his way up to his room, collecting his belongings and setting off downstairs to leave. He bade the farmer's wife, and the farmer, who had come inside for a cup of tea, sweating as though he had been working from sunrise, farewell, before reassembling his bike and climbing onto it. If he rode all day, he should be able to reach Olivine by night. And that was exactly what he intended to do. He first called out Riolu however.

"Okay, I know you can run as fast as I can pedal, but let's get some endurance training in. Run by me as I bike." Ethan instructed as Riolu, simply nodded, stretching to shake off the grip of sleepiness.

The day passed uneventfully, not many trainers traveling in the opposite direction, and those whom had been behind him hadn't caught up, and weren't likely to unless they took to the air or were riding Pokemon.

* * *

He had been bicycling for about half an hour when he nearly crashed from having to shield his eyes from a flare of sunlight that went directly at his eyes. He looked up to see a glimmering silver object with red highlights soaring through the air. He recognized it as a Skarmory as it dove to pick up speed, much like the one Lyra's grandfather Jedidiah had had, but this one was much larger, seemed to be going much farther, regardless of the fact that the distance between them made it look like it was flying about as fast as he was pedaling.

He recalled that Steven had mentioned his Skarmory earlier, looking up to see if he could spot the man sitting on top of the metallic bird. Sure enough as it dove it did a three sixty, revealing Steven's head of silver hair, his slim form covered into a silvery body suit of sorts. He couldn't really tell much more from this distance, but as Steven bent his back to lie flat against Skarmory, Ethan noted that he was near invisible. Maybe that was the purpose of the suit.

He pedaled furiously, trying to see how long he could keep the bird in sight, before it dove once more, this time much closer, spiraling as it did, and shot off in a blur, having picked up the speed it needed. He slowed down a bit, checking the time. Steven had flown slowly, for reasons unknown, for around fifteen minutes.

He continued on for the rest of the morning, pedaling until about two in the afternoon, when he decided to take a training and lunch break. He found his way the top of a small hill, the height of the terrain receding the further he went. He set his bike against a tree, climbing off and releasing his Pokemon, one by one, Riolu jumping off the back of his bike, having climbed on every hour or so to rest for fifteen minutes.

"Okay everyone. Same things as last time. Lunch first, then training for… maybe two hours… At the rate we're moving, since I'm on my bike now, after recalling I have it," he grinned sheepishly at the last statement, scratching his head before continuing on. He pulled out his friends' food and his own, along with a red hoodie from his bag. It was getting chilly. He pulled it one as Feraligatr opened the tin of noodles for him, Typhlosion heating the food in the bags for itself and Riolu. Ethan had done some reading up on his Pokemon when he had had Wi-Fi access. Specter, naturally, didn't eat, which it never did in the first place. All of his other Pokemon did. Scyther were at some stage supposed to stop consuming anything but tree sap, which he noted his own had lumbered off to do. Feraligatr was listed as eating every week or so and eating a lot, by hunting, or eating regularly, which was done when it was with a trainer, but mentioning that the former was healthier. Typhlosion and Riolu were the only ones who were to stay on their current dietary track.

"Feraligatr, you probably know this better than I do, but research says your kind normally hunts and eats once a week." To which Feraligatr frowned and nodded after mulling it over. "Think you can go till tonight? You can gorge yourself at the beach in Olivine. Don't worry, I'll still keep food for when we're travelling."

After mulling it over for a little bit again Feraligatr nodded, leaving Ethan free to examine Riolu's progress after having eaten. The little cub was becoming adept with every move it was being handed to learn, even if its usage of aura and uses of it were limited. But right now he needed to work a bit more on endurance, which came naturally with evolving into a Lucario, and gaining the steel typing and apparently, steel bones, as did the wider pool of uses for aura and the general increase in usage of it.

He walked over to Typhlosion, who was slowly but surely gaining proficiency with Solar Beam, charging up as much as it could or wanted to easily at this point. Now it was focusing on finding a powerful limitation to the size it allowed it to grow till. Then he walked over to Feraligatr, who was making progress with rain dance. By doing the same thing as the previous day, creating a tower of rocks and filling it as it drained, his improvement was showing. The column of water that was occupying it was being filled about half as fast as it was being drained, which was very good. Occasionally, Feraligatr would supplement it with water gun to raise the water level and allow itself to continue.

He made his way to the glowing boulder, where Specter was still resolutely trying to drain energy from it, managing a wisp on occasion now, but it was slow work. Ethan gritted his teeth, noting how the ghost never seemed to get frustrated with this menial task. What little energy it managed to drain back was probably boosting its spirits. Scyther had made good progress with Shadow claw, or what at this stage was more of shadow blade, but past evolution, would become Shadow Claw.

Its left blade was glowing a bright blackish purple as it attacked Riolu mercilessly, teaching the little cub to sidestep, block and simply avoid attacks, even from an opponent of his speed. The cub had scratches, some old and new, from the multiple times Scyther had managed to touch him and held back. Ethan noted that most of them had scabbed over and were older. There were fewer fresh ones. Scyther was still reaching and marking Riolu on a regular basis, but only cutting it about half the time, parting its fur the rest of the time. The thing about young Pokemon was that, like a human child, they could pick up skills very easily and essentially be molded into any style of fighting they were capable off. Ethan had to hand it to Scyther. The bug had been able to teach Riolu its fast paced fighting style very quickly. The best part about it would be that if they mastered speed now, then when they evolved, they would naturally incorporate heavier hitting into that speed.

Ethan grinned as he leaned against his bike, watching the sun in the sky as it trailed downwards from the sky. Ethan pressed his hands down against the carbon fiber frame, recalling Brendan and his move to Hoenn. The ship they had decided to take from the Golden Rod harbor might have reached by now. They main question as whether Brendan had reached his new home. He wasn't living in any major city like he was used to, but rather in a small town surrounded by woods in walking distance of the other town where his father's gym was. According to what Ethan had been told by him, the town was about as small as, if not smaller than New-Bark.

He checked his watch, deciding to call off training a quarter of an hour early to give Riolu some rest before he ran with alongside Ethan. He walked over to all his Pokemon, recalling them, save Riolu. He picked the aura Pokemon up and sat him down on his left shoulder, walking back to his bike and climbing onto the saddle. He pulled out his phone, dialing in the number he knew would be in service until Brendan got a Hoennian number, at which point he would get a text, which he hadn't.

He pressed the phone to his ear as it rang, once, twice… four times…. Eight times. He sighed, reaching for the little red icon at the bottom of the screen when a voice shouted through the other end.

"HOLD THE PHONE" came Brendan's voice.

Ethan could hear Brendan panting and he wondered where he was. He could make out the screeching of some avian Pokemon in the background.

"Hi." Ethan replied, laughing on the inside as he pressed the phone back to his ear.

"Morning. Wait, sorry, evening!" Brendan greeted him, the signal a bit distorted.

"So, I take it you've reached shore?" Ethan asked, smiling as he waited for one of Brendan's usual sarcastic replies.

"Yes. IN fact I'm sitting inside the volcano in Fallarbor Town right now. It's quite pleasant in here really!" Brendan quipped, his voice mocking as always.

"Very funny. Where are you though, really?" Ethan replied as he felt Riolu scamper down from his shoulder and sit on the back of the bike.

"I'm in Lilycove city. It's the biggest port in Hoenn. Well the biggest international port. The water's in Slateport are too shallow around half its coastline, and the other half is near some very strong rapids I've been told, so apparently only Hoennian Captains who know the water sail through that port, and even then it's only occasionally away from the city. Right now we've got a day here to unwind before we start our trek through Hoenn to the other side of the region, where dad's gym is. He plans on going on foot, traversing rivers on his Flygon, as well as a few other terrains to catch up. He'll make it home before us honestly. He wants to get familiar with the land, more than can be done from maps and books, and to get a sense of the Pokemon around here, despite my encyclopedia." Brendan sounded a bit miffed as he spoke the last statement, but his tone changed quickly. "We're driving for some time though. My mom's sick of boats, but we have to take at least one to get home, so our debate is whether to take a ferry through the rapids to Slateport, from where we take another smaller boat to Petalburg, where Dad's gym is. That should take around six days, with the time taken to travel across the rapids. Our other option is take the major land route around far North from here through some woods, and then down south, across a river and across a highway to Slateport, from where we go back down to Petalburg by boat. That'll take about two weeks, including three days for rest, and shopping by what my mother's saying, and includes all the time required to traverse rough terrain."

"Well…. Good luck either way. Which do you prefer honestly?" He asked, figuring out it would be better to end the topic on a lighter note.

"Honestly, despite how long it takes, I think my parents will pick the land route and I want to do that, because seeing nothing but the sea, pun intended, can get boring, after we've just done that for quite a while, might I add… Dad's leaning towards the land route because he doesn't particularly feel the need to roam the land beyond the radius which is the distance from Petalburg to the Volcano in Fallarbor, which would be everything directly north of home, and everything east as far as Slateport, which won't take him long." Brendan replied. "And it's a chance to see Pokemon up close here. All I've seen are a few Tentacool, and this water bird thing called Wingull. Occasionally its evolution, Pelipper. You'd think a region that's territory is more than half water would have some more fish at the surface of its seas." Brendan laughed. "So what's happened to you? Everything in detail."

"Well…. I beat Whitney and she started crying like a little brat. She was passed out drunk when I first got to the gym. Then I met my cousin for a while, went to dinner with him, but that got interrupted by a rogue Tyranitar….. I got an egg from Steven Stone, it hatched into a Riolu who's sitting behind me right now. I went to Ecruteak and beat their gym leader, but not before I witnessed the awakening of the three beasts of Johto and the flooding of the ruins of the Burnt Tower, and right now I'm going west past the Miltank Farm, where I spent the night, saved the farmer, met Lance for the second time, the first was after the tower incident, And was accepted by Steven Stone as his apprentice." Ethan smirked to himself, knowing that Brendan would be backlogged with information, analyzing every open ended sentence he had spoken enough to drive him to hell and back.

"Wait back up there kiddo! Rogue Tyranitar in the middle of Goldenrod City? You saved the farmer at the Miltank farm? You met Lance twice? You met Steven Stone, he gave you an egg and you're his apprentice!? And most insane of all, YOU WITNESSED THE AWAKENING OF THE THREE FAXING BEASTS OF JOHTO!?" Brendan was shouting at this point, his rapid breathing over the phone. "Okay cut the Miltank-turds."

As Ethan remained silent, Brendan slowly came to the conclusion that he wasn't pulling his leg and spoke hesitantly.

"So it's all really true then?" He whispered, sitting silently as Ethan confirmed it. "Well they say once between each full solar eclipse is someone who attracts chaos born." Brendan joked weakly, regaining his nerve. "Tell me everything properly by email, this call is dragging on too long to be good for either of our wallets."

"Bye." Ethan responded, seeing that it was five past four and slipped his phone back into his pocket after Brendan cut the call. "Come on Riolu, let's go!" He smiled as the cub jumped off the back of his bike, following him away as he pedaled furiously, covering ground as fast as he could. A workout for both of them. After about an hour, Riolu pulled itself up onto the bike.

Ethan slowed down, somewhat fatigued from the furious pedaling himself. He had however noticed that every hour or so, Riolu was managing to go a few minutes longer. Right now it had been running for an hour and ten minutes. Slow and steady improvement for Riolu, but comparatively quick in retrospect, since any of his other Pokemon wouldn't be improving this fast. He continued on with Riolu like this, the cub running next to him on and off until finally around seven thirty, they reached Olivine City.

Ethan slowed down his pedaling, panting heavily. He recalled Riolu as he made his way through the city. People milled around in the streets. The area was lively and active, the paved cobblestone streets highlighted by the soft orange glow of the setting sun and the bright lanterns strung between poles around the streets. Stall were set up on all sides of him, small shops even in places. Not one of them looked temporary. He biked through the district until he reached a point from where he could see the ocean.

The city started to slope slightly downwards from that point, streets cut into the gentle slopes and buildings built on them. He could see down to the harbor, the coastline of Olivine deep enough for the entire thing to be used as an international port. Ships lined the harbor, some still coming in. To the left, by the lighthouse, were the fishing ships and boats, one or two still coming in with their daily catch, and to the right, from his view, were the passenger or cargo ships. At far end on the left, up on a high hill surrounded by jagged rocks, with a path cut into the side, was a massive Lighthouse. The beacon of light coming out of the windows was insanely bright, and rotating.

He biked down to the Pokemon center, spotting the roof halfway between the harbor and where he was right now. He stopped at the entrance, disassembling his bike and folding up the parts to sling back into his pack. The glass doors opened automatically as he approached them, revealing a well-lit and somewhat busy lobby with a tiled ceramic floor and couches near the entrance, arranged in arrays near the TV's mounted on the walls. At the end of the room was the nurses' station, next to a row of Storage System Computers. Ethan had had no reason up until now to use the system save for sending ultra-balls to Kurt, so he ignored those entirely, walking straight up to the counter and getting in line. Ten minutes later, he was standing in front of a nurse with light brown hair, dark and black eyes.

"How can I help you sir?" she spoke with a slightly sing-song accent, one that Ethan couldn't place.

"Could I get a room please, and get my Pokemon checked up?" Ethan asked, pulling out his trainer ID and handing the metal strip to her before she could ask for it, along with his five Ultra Balls.

"Sure…. Ethan is it?" She smiled, taking them. Ethan noted that her accent gave her voice a high, if not unpleasant pitch. A minute later she handed him an electronic key and his ID back.

"Great! Cafeteria's off to the left." She gestured with her left arm and a straight hand to the corridor on Ethan's left, "And your room is One-O-eight, on, access to ground floor rooms on the right side. The only rooms available are mass apartments. You'll be sharing with a few people. Pick up your Pokemon or if there's anything serious, their reports, in half an hour."

Ethan nodded, more than a bit tired, and headed off to the right, going to find his room first. It wasn't far, the fourth room on the left side of the corridor. He unlocked the door to find himself in a common lounge with a fridge and a stove in one corner, two couches arranged at a right angle and a TV opposite them.

There were three girls in the room, two identical twins, with black hair, tanned skin, lean figures and eyes that were a mixture of brown and green. They looked around twenty years old. The other girls had strawberry blond hair, skin as white as paper, grey eyes with a few hints of yellow, and looked to be a year or two older than he was. There were three doors leading out of the lounge apart from the exit, two of them ajar, and from the third entered a boy his age, with brown hair, skin that was slightly tanned, green eyes, and a red welt under his left eye that looked like someone had hit him.

"Hi. The name's Aaron. Aarons Ross." He walked up to Ethan and shook his hand after a second.

"Ethan. Sorry, but have you ever trained an Aron?" he asked jokingly, hoping the person in front of him had a sense of humor. Aaron was a six foot three plank of fitness, and his belt was fixed with three pokeballs, an Ultra ball, and two great balls. His arms were thick, all the excess fast chiseled off of them to reveal muscles that made Ethan shiver. He noticed that even his V-Neck was slightly strained. To his relief the older boy, from his voice, broke into a smile immediately.

"As a matter of fact, three. Two are Aggrons now. Third is their little kid." Immediately Ethan got the sense that he was easy going, which confused him as to how such a lax, calm person, had gotten into a fight. "The little one gave me this welt. Juliet, my Gardevoir, managed to catch it before it did much more than touch me. Still, it's made of iron. Or steel. I'm from Hoenn by the way."

"Nice to meet you. Ethan Photon. I'm from New-Bark Town, down in the South East of Johto." Ethan replied, at ease now.

"There's a second bed in the room I came out of. The other two rooms are the girls'." Aaron gestured towards the door he came out of, taking a seat on one of the couches.

Ethan walked through the open door, finding a small room with two twin beds in opposite ends of the room, with small bedside tables between them. He removed his pack form his back, slinging his small backpack into the shelf in the bedside table. He dropped the large pack of camping equipment and clothes by his bed and let himself fall face first onto the bunk. He hit it with a loud smack, causing the girl with blond hair to peer in the door.

He lay there peacefully for a minute before heading out of the room with a change of clothes in hand to go to the communal showers. He found his way there and ducked into an empty stall. Around a quarter of an hour later he was back in the room, sitting on the couch with the others, whose names he had learned, watching bad comedy shows.

Another girl had in the meantime appeared, presumably coming from the shower since she had a towel wrapped around her head. Ethan still didn't know the color of her hair. Her skin was naturally dark, not too dark though, but enough to tell that it was natural, and her eyes were a sparkling hazel. That was Angelina. She was nineteen and a trainer from Cianwood City, on her way east to take on the gym circuit after taking a gap of a year between her fourth and fifth gym battles.

The blonde was Katie, who was from Mahogany Town, was seventeen years old, and battled as a hobby. She wasn't pursuing the gym challenge, and was on her way out of the region to meet some relatives. The twins were Lucia and Linda, from Goldenrod, whom hadn't specified why they were here.

Aaron had said he was in Johto to deal with some family work, and on vacation, and was headed out back to Hoenn in two days from the harbor, and had said that he was eighteen years old. By the time half an hour had passed since he had arrived, he was feeling pretty hungry. He stood up, nodding in everyone's general direction and walked out, heading to the lobby. He walked up to the same nurse form before and handed her his ID, getting it back with all of his Pokemon.

"All of your Pokemon are pretty much fine. Nothing a little healing serum couldn't fix. Have a good night." The nurse had said. With his pokeballs clipped to his belt, Ethan walked down the other corridor to a wide open room filled with tables with benches on both sides, and a sign hanging from the roof which said 'POKEMON FEEDING AREA AT THE BACK!"

Ethan followed the signs directive, making his way to the back, where a sign hung saying, "Please do not leave Pokemon here unsupervised. Humanoid Pokemon which do not weigh in excess of two hundred kilograms may be taken with their food to the front of the room. Talk to breeders for type specialties."

Ethan sighed, walking over to a free breeder wearing the Pokemon Center's pokeball pattern apron and tapped her shoulder.

"Um… HI… Could you help me out here? I need food for a Riolu, a Typhlosion, a scyther who drinks sap and a Feraligatr who's at the gorge itself once a week stage." He greeted her. She was dark skinned, and her beady black eyes darted all over Ethan's face for a moment before she nodded and walked away to a closed door, gesturing for him to follow.

"Fill this crate with seafood from those freezers while I find food for your other Pokemon." She said, scrawling "Feraligatr" on the crate with a marker and walking away. Ethan nodded to no one in particular, setting about the menial task of filling the crate, which measured about two meters by one for the bottom, and was about a meter high.

Once he was done he wiped his brow off, noting that the breeder had been standing behind him for a while. He raised an eyebrow at this to receive only a shrug in reply, along another crate, sectioned through the middle with Typhlosion on one side and Riolu on the other, and a pouch of sap about as long as his arm and as wide as a book. She helped him drag both crates out of there and set them down in a corner, before he thanked her and she walked off.

He released his Pokemon, save for Specter, who didn't need to eat and sat down on a small bench. "Good work today guys! You're all making real progress!" Ethan encouraged them as they ate, interacting with each of them. He scratched Typhlosion's belly, Feraligatr behind a scale, sat with Riolu and fist bumped the flat side of Scyther's blade. He couldn't really do much about the last one.

Another quarter of an hour later he was out of the Pokemon feeding section with his Pokemon secured to his belt again. He approached the front of the cafeteria again, filing into line and claiming a plate of seafood and a coke. He looked around, finding an empty table near the counter, a low rectangular one with benches attached at both ends.

He took his tray there and sat down, digging in. He emptied the first plate quickly, going back for seconds, this time adding a bit of macaroni and cheese to the side. He sat down once again, picking up his fork and spoon. A few minutes later however, a shadow crossed his face and he looked up to see Aaron sitting down opposite him with a tray. Settling down next to him was a Pokemon that he didn't recognize.

It was a feminine Pokemon, quite literally the closest Pokemon to a human, looking much like a girl. Green, hair Ethan decided to call it despite knowing it wasn't fur or hair, covered its head and trailed back over it in one curl, splitting in two and coming to ends right over its shoulder. From the front the green hair made a thick filled in V over its pure white face, with sparkling red eyes on either side. Its arms were made of the same green substance as its hair, and its chest was the same white as its neck and face, but the white separated from its body at the waist, flowing out like a dress that wasn't spread to far, with a gap lower on revealing a green layer of the same kind of dress. From the front, Ethan could see a red sliver on its chest, but when it shifted slightly Ethan realized it was all but that. Its chest was completely flat, as was its back, but protruding from both sides was a triangular red spike, the tip pointed slightly upwards at the thin edge, and the upper side at a ninety degree angle with its chest.

"Hey. Juliet, this is Ethan. Ethan this is Juliet. She's a Gardevoir." Aaron explained as his Pokemon shifted to the other end of the table. Ethan noted that it had a mouth, but the food in its plate was simply disappearing slowly.

"Honestly it's been a bit weird sharing a room with three or four girls for a week." He dug around in his pocket and placed a golden badge on the table, catching Ethan's eyes.

His jaw must have opened with shock as he saw it. It was a plain golden shield, the sides straight and at a slight gradient, but they turned into smooth curved which joined into a point at the bottom. Running through the center was a V shaped depression into which was fitted a green piece of glass with the Hoenn Crest, Ethan assumed from his knowledge, carved into it and a gold version fixed into the carving. By the sides of the V were strips of Green Glass, five on each side, except the lower three on either side were sparkling more and had a few veins of white in them, actual emerald.

"You're an Ace Trainer!" Ethan's eyes widened as he said the words, causing Aaron to smile. "You're a level 3 Ace Trainer!"

"That I am good sir. I'm on vacation right now though." Aaron replied, leaning back before realizing he was on a bench.

"Wow! That's my goal! What Pokemon do you have? How long have you been an ace trainer?" Ethan's face went red with embarrassment as he realized he probably looked like a five year old meeting someone in a superhero costume.

"Don't worry I don't mind the questions." Aaron replied well naturedly. "I've got six Pokemon on me right now. I have Guardian and Bastion, my two Aggron, and Iron, the little one. Juliet here. And I've got a Gorebyss and a Huntail, siblings, who refused nicknames. At home I have a Flygon who stayed home because she laid more than a few Trapinch eggs before I left. I've been an ace trainer for two years now. I came to the conference when I was around sixteen and a half for the first time after skipping my chance to barely make the conference at fifteen and a half, and I made it to third place." Aaron replied as Ethan scrolled through the data Brendan had complied on Hoenn Pokemon from all sources, not finding Gorebyss and Huntail in it yet.

"Here." Aaron pulled his own phone out and showed Ethan two picture, clearly taken with an underwater camera. The water around them was dark, evidently they were as deep as humans could go with a Pokémon's aid.

The first one showed an eight foot long pink serpentine Pokemon which grew wider from a thin tail towards its head, which was large and flat, about a foot and a half wide at the most. It had a strand extending from its head, the same pink with purple around the end and a pointed snout, as well as a similar smaller strand below its head. It had two white stripes on its lower tail and two shells fixed to its body before that. At the end of its tail was a flat purple shell shaped fin, not too large.

The other showed an eleven foot long sea serpent with a blue hide that looked tough, and orangish white spots ringed with orange dotting its body at regular intervals. Unlike the previous one its body was for the most part at a constant thickness, which only a slight difference between middle and the tail, the end of the tail being larger and shaped like the previous serpent's head. Orange fins lined the top of its back, and its head was massive, about three feet tall, and it had two of the orangish white circles where nostrils would be. Its head was round from the top with an orange fin fanning outwards attached to it. Its jaw was squarish with small orange fins attached to each side. The most impressive part of it, and the scariest was its jaw. Or rather its jaws. It had three visible teeth in the upper jaw, at regular intervals, one in the center, one on the left, and one on the right. Its lower jaw had one tooth at each end, larger than the upper ones. This was at the front only.

"The pink one is Gorebyss, and the other is Huntail. They're siblings because they both evolve from Clamperl. They're both insanely fast swimmers, and you won't find them anywhere but the deepest reaches of the oceans in Hoenn. Clamperl take special conditions under the pressure of the depth of the ocean to evolve. There are other ways however. One ability they both have, is without the move dive, to allow them to carry a human as deep as they can go into the ocean themselves. Huntail is outright dangerous because of its jaw. I've seen a Huntail close its jaw around an empty oil pipe underwater, brand new and not in use yet, and puncture it, rip out a piece of the pipe and crush it. Gorebyss however, is deadly. They attract people and Pokemon with their beauty, and they're efficient with their tails, even more so than Huntail. You'll never see one's mouth though, unless they're trying to eat, in which case if it's you they're trying to eat, you're dead. They have hundreds of razor sharp teeth that can kill anything hidden away inside. They honestly look like they don't have mouths. It can't do what Huntail can, like open its jaws one eighty degrees, or crush steel, but it's deadly alright." Aaron shuddered for a second, presumably at the memory of watching Gorebyss eat, before putting the pictures back in the pocket with his phone. "That's nowhere near how far they can dive. I had these developed today when I went diving. If you're ever in Hoenn give me a call."

Aaron scribbled a number onto a piece of card and handed it to him, putting his tray on the rack and leaving. Ethan did the same, going straight to bed and collapsing. If he wanted to take on Jasmine tomorrow he would have to be rested.

* * *

The next morning…

Ethan woke up to see Aaron still lying in bed and feeble rays of light passing through the curtain. He checked the clock on the bedside table. It was seven in the morning. He sat up, rubbing his eyes. It occurred to him then as he was about to draw the blankets back up that he may as well get up and schedule a battle with Jasmine as early as possible. So he got out of bed and walked out with his clothes to the showers, changing and getting ready. He made his way out to the cafeteria, finding the lobby empty save for one person who was waiting impatiently as a nurse explained something to him. He wandered over to the Cafeteria to find its glass doors chained shut with a padlock, even over the regular locks in their metal frames. A piece of paper he had missed yesterday was taped to each one, listing the timings for the Cafeteria on it. It was Sunday today and it didn't open until nine. Inconvenient. As he walked back out of the corridor, a nurse flagged him down from the station. Frowning, he walked over to her.

"Yeah sorry, the cafeteria's locked and staff won't be here till eight thirty. But there is a café that's open at this hour. It's on the street above us, or rather behind us. Near the gym. You'll see it." The nurse smiled. She looked like a little girl, or a cheerleader with that ear to ear smile and the blond eyes and blue hair. She was ridiculously short, probably around five feet exactly.

"Thanks." Ethan replied sleepily, walking out the door and into the light of day. He squinted as the sun rose from his left, allowing the lighthouse to cast a massive shadow across the harbor which was already busy. He walked up the road to the West, following the incline. Now that it was daylight, he could see the roads and understand the city structure better. The city was built onto the slope down to the harbor and the roads were all sloping as well, running either East or west and making a one eighty turn to continue lower in the opposite direction. The Pokemon Center was on the second street from the top, out of eight. From what he could see, after the fourth street it was flat. The third street was mainly shops and other things, and the flat areas and the fourth street were mainly residential, with a market area much like the one at the city limits before the slope started, near the piers that were accessible to the public. The harbor extended out beyond that, ending Olivine's reach in the deep waters.

He climbed uphill to the west and then turned East onto the next road, a street of small cafés, and office buildings, including the Olivine city gym, a massive city he had passed last night with marble pillars holding up an extension of the roof mean to provide shade for a few meters outside the doors.

He walked up to the massive doors, reading the timings on an engraved plaque by the door. It had opened around the time he had woken up. He pushed open the massive steel doors which were riveted around the edges, letting it swing inwards and cause a draft. The hall was lit up, and there was a girl sitting at the receptionist's desk. Ethan could see a railing, which indicated a viewing balcony, and a sliver of dirt beyond that which indicated a very deep field. That also meant large Pokemon. He walked up to the girl, a dark skinned girl with black hair and black eyes.

"Hi I'd like to set a time for a gym battle with Jasmine." He greeted her, handing her his trainer card.

"When?" she asked.

"Half an hour from now. I just need to grab a bite to eat." He replied as she penciled him in and handed back the trainer tag, nodding.

"Be here then." She stated simply, going back to transcribing data off of a massive register.

He walked out the doors, noting how the massive doors were just as hard to swing inside initially, until he got a good grip on the handle. Then they moved easily. He walked out and looked across the street at the line of cafés there. There was one two shops down which was open, one or two early birds already there. He walked down to it and went straight to the counter, ordering a blueberry muffin and hot chocolate. He took them and sat down at a table on the sidewalk, staring at the gym as he ate.

Finally done, he walked to the door, getting a grip on it and pushing it in, surprised at how easily it opened. The receptionist looked up to see him and simply gestured at a glass elevator in a corner by the balcony. Ethan walked the distance to it, some fifty feet and stepped in, looking out in awe. The pit was about fifty feet deep and at the bottom was a packed earth battleground with the lines drawn on it in white chalk. Two metal platforms were nestled in the ground, with railing around them, one at each end. Sitting in the platform at the other end was a young woman in her early twenties with pale skin and brown hair tied back in two braids.

"I hope the door didn't bother you!" she greeted him, standing up and walking out to the center of the platform.

"It was heavy I guess." Ethan responded carefully.

"Not really. It's hollow. There's an electromagnet inside each one that locks them together. They get deactivated when the pressure and heat sensors in the handles are activated. Or you could use the buzzer next to the plaque." She shrugged simply.

"So you must be Steven's new apprentice." She looked at him oddly, as if examining a specimen of… rock, judging by the gems on display in the wall.

"What makes you think that." He replied, deciding to see how it would play out.

"Well he mentioned he was taking someone with four badges on, with a lot of potential. A boy of around sixteen or fifteen. Clarisse passed me your information. He said this boy might challenge me." Ethan assumed Clarisse was the receptionist.

"Still, it could be anyone." He replied, hoping to get a good laugh out of Jasmine.

"Yes. But It helped that he also slipped me your name." she grinned, revealing dazzling white teeth and broke out into laughter. Ethan smiled. It was always good to meet someone with a sense of humor.

"Since you have four badges, you'll be taking on a team I keep prepared for trainers with four to six badges, in accordance with league rules. Three on three. No switching mid battle. Either of us can switch when the other loses a Pokemon. Climb into the metal platform on your side." She instructed him once she had stopped laughing, sauntering over to her own platform.

He walked over, jumping over a section of the railing before realizing there was a gate in it, with agate in it, and deadpanning. He picked at his belt, pulling off three ultra-balls and setting them aside in depressions in a table next to him. The platform shuddered for a minute before it started rising slowly, all the way to the level of the floor of the entrance. Ethan peered down to see the battlefield, now fifty six feet away, give or take an inch, counting his own height as well.

He readied his first ultra-ball as Jasmine gestured to a massive screen in the wall, showing a countdown clock. He gritted his teeth, waiting as the timer ticked down to zero before hitting the release button on his Ultra ball. Specter formed in the middle of the arena, grinning and cackling as he did a backflip. Forming on the other side of the half-line was a floating metal sphere with a massive eye in the front, part of the curve of the sphere, a screw fitted halfway into the top of its body and the same in the bottom. Attached to its sides were two magnets. It was a Magnemite. His mind raced. He had seen one before in a televised tournament that had taken place here in Olivine. He grimaced. It was an electric and steel type. It would have been better for him had he started out with Typhlosion and switched out once he knocked it out. Nonetheless what had happened had happened.

He felt Specter brush against his mind, linking them mentally so Jasmine wouldn't hear him. At least he wouldn't have to shout for a while.

' _Specter, start with shadow ball to see how much it works. Then barrage it_.' Ethan thought as instantaneously, Specter began charging up a shadow ball rapidly, dodging a thunder shock he had heard Jasmine order.

' _Don't fire this one off! Sneak up on it somehow and ram it into it. Unless you're close range, it'll dodge because of its speed and levitation_.' He thought frantically.

Thankfully, the link seemed to be working as Specter dodged the shock, and then next one, feigning to be too busy dodging it to attack, whilst it was charging up the Shadow ball and closing in on Magnemite slowly.

"Mite! Use discharge!" Jasmine shouted as Haunter struggled for a moment and faded out of existence, electricity sparking around Magnemite's magnets.

Ethan watched on, heart pounding as Specter appeared behind Magnemite, the shadow ball absolutely massive now, and slammed it straight into the steel/electric type, sending it careening off to one side as it released discharge. Thankfully, due to Specter's hit causing it to be pushed away, the ghost avoided the larger charges in the inner rings of discharge, despite getting caught in the outer rings of electricity and getting shocked mildly.

Specter floated up, more than a few curse words forming in its head.

' _Now isn't the time for swearing! Hit it with a dark pulse to get it off course and then hit it with barrage it!_ ' Ethan ordered, watching hopefully as his spirits soared.

"Mite use thunderbolt!" Jasmine shouted.

Specter managed to release a dark pulse quickly and knock Magnemite off its feet, that thought had Ethan frowning since it didn't really have limbs, and then start a steady barrage of Shadow Balls, pushing it back to the wall on Jasmine's side of the arena.

Then Magnemite managed to avoid one and its magnets started spinning rapidly, firing off an electric charge in no time that hit an off game Specter right in the chest. Ethan watched in horror as the ghost dissociated, before remembering that that happened all the time. He relaxed as Specter's gaseous form recollected and reformed into a very ticked off ghost. But Ethan could see beyond the damage through its mind. It had been dealt a strong blow. The Gengar line were fast, and hard hitters, but were very vulnerable, metaphysically speaking.

' _Specter use confuse ray, get an edge on it!_ ' Ethan though hurriedly as Jasmine shouted another order which he missed.

The Haunter readied the attack, and ring of three purplish orange orbs the size of oranges floating around him which were sent spiraling towards Magnemite, following it every which way.

 _'Will-O'-Wisp!_ ' Ethan followed up as it readied ghostly flames, Magnemite's magnets whirring in charge as it was relentlessly chased by the ever closing confuse ray. Each fired their own attacks, the bolt of electricity passing between the flickering flames as they went their own ways, each meeting its target. Specter dissociated again, unable to avoid the attack.

' _Specter end this with the biggest shadow ball you can muster!_ ' Ethan instructed as a barrage of rocks floated above Magnemite before striking it as it lost control of the attack in confusion.

The apparition was seriously looking fatigued now as it poured its energy into the shadow ball, approaching Magnemite cautiously, the latter's magnets whirring. It slammed the sphere into the electric type's back as Jasmine shouted.

"Mite explosion!" She shouted. Ethan's eyes widened as she ordered an attack that would work in confusion anyway. The area around Magnemite exploded, knocking the apparition out, as well as knocking Magnemite out

He reached for his ultra-ball as the wisps of gas just drifted about, recognizing them immediately as an unconscious Specter.

"Never underestimate a Magnemite!" Jasmine called across the room with a smile as he recalled Specter, simply nodding. He fingered the two ultra-balls, picking one as the timer started to tick down, Jasmine having recalled the fainted Magnemite.

He released Feraligatr onto the field, knowing full well that Jasmine would probably not have any other electric types available, and readied himself for battle. Sitting in the middle of the field, preening, was a large metallic bird, not larger than Feraligatr mind you, a good two feet smaller, but still large. Its wings were red from the underside, and its eyes yellow.

Another Skarmory. He had now seen two in two days. Feraligatr was obviously the better choice for this battle, because whilst Typhlosion had the type advantage to hold over its head, it was useless without the range that of his team only Feraligatr and Specter possessed. So far.

"Feraligatr, Water gun!" He shouted across to the massive beast as it fired off three bursts of water, one after the other, as the avian took to the sky. Of those, only the second managed to mark it.

"Mory, hit it with steel wing! Let's see how tough that scaly hide is!" Jasmine shouted as the metal bird pivoted in the air and changed course, heading rapidly for Feraligatr. Ethan's heart sank. He knew Feraligatr was too slow on land to dodge these types of attacks.

"Feraligatr! Bat it with your tail if you can and then use rain dance!" He shouted out, hoping the former would work.

Skarmory approached Feraligatr, cutting through the air like a knife thrown from the balcony and went straight for it, wings shining silver. Feraligatr turned at the last second, still getting hit in the back by the attack, but denting Skarmory's left wing with its spikes. On top of that, it slammed its tail up into Skarmory's chest and sent it flying, dazed as well.

Immediately the water type focused, forming rain clouds in the gym as water started to pour down, slowly at first, but the storms grew stronger as Skarmory regained its bearings, flying up high as Jasmine issued a command Ethan failed to hear.

"Feraligatr look out!" Ethan shouted as two identical twisters formed in the concave areas of Skarmory's wings, firing off at Feraligatr. The giant water type fell flat into the now foot high pool of water, keeping as much of its body out of the water as it could so that it could swim, and pushed off.

The twisters hit the water level, sending sprays in every direction, indeed even a few hit Skarmory. Ethan flinched as one of them hit Feraligatr dead on. The water was still too shallow for a seven and a half foot bipedal Pokemon to swim comfortably. Feraligatr was sent flying back into the wall from the force of the twister as they died down, leaving the water in choppy waves.

"Feraligatr, Ice beam!" Ethan shouted.

The gator stood up slowly pressing its back straight against the wall before reacting as Skarmory homed in on it, flying in on the unmoving target with another steel wing. The water type forced its massive jaws open, ice undoubtedly forming in the depth of its throat as Skarmory neared. The avian, still unaware of the charging attack, rushed forward.

Ethan's heart skipped a beat as Feraligatr fired off a massive beam of ice, about as wide as his arm, at the Avian, sending it flying back into the wall, careening about as it tried to fly again. Immediately the water level started to rise again as water once more burst forth from the rain clouds anchored to the ceiling.

Ethan watched as Skarmory prepared itself to do something, wings and beak gleaming in a rusty color this time as it circled lower and lower, until it was at the water's surface, flying straight at Feraligatr.

"Ice Fang!" He shouted, hoping Feraligatr would be able to break away from rain dance in time, and it did, but not without consequences. Skarmory's beak pierced Feraligatr's hide, drawing a little bit of thick blue blood, and its right wing hits its back, but Feraligatr caught hold of its left wing with Ice fang and sent it flying once again. This time when Skarmory took to the air again it was flapping its left wing frantically.

Ethan watched as it let out a screech so loud the sound waves became visible for a moment, the pulses hitting Feraligatr hard, and once again into the wall. There was now a depression in the right wall which vaguely resembled Feraligatr's back. He wanted to jump for joy however as he saw how much of the battlefield was submerged now. Judging by how much of Feraligatr's body was underwater, he was going to say about four to five feet, closer to five, which was deep enough for Feraligatr to swim quickly.

"Feraligatr! Swim!" Ethan shouted, forgetting attacking for the moment as Skarmory fluttered around, its flight and speed impaired. He grinned like an idiot as Feraligatr dove into the water, submerging itself completely except for the occasional spike from its back being visible as it swam around the now flooded arena, very easily able to avoid any attack that would come its way.

"Mory Metal Sound!" Jasmine shouted, trying to defy the laws of physics as once again Skarmory let out a screech that could make anyone's ears bleed.

This time however, nothing happened to Feraligatr, who merely stuck his head out of the water after the attack and made a gesture resembling cocking an eyebrow, before diving back in. The water had caught the sound waves and protected Feraligatr from the damage, letting it hear only a Skarmory's normal cry.

"Mory use twister!" She shouted, letting Skarmory take it sweet time and form multiple twisters to fire off at the water, sending it all churning as the twisters touched the ground, forming whirlpools. The constantly moved about, randomly, chasing their target in the water.

Then Skarmory released another set into the water, and after that another, trying to force Feraligatr out. The third set managed to catch Feraligatr unawares, and threw it out of the water and into the roof, where it stuck for a moment due to the spikes in its back and tail.

Ethan watched as it plummeted from the roof, regaining its bearings and steadying itself to land in the water and swim, weary as it was. It crashed into the flooded arena a moment later, disappearing under the choppy waves as it started swimming again, staying on the move. Ethan waited until it popped its head out again to give it orders.

"Feraligatr! Ice beams and Fangs!" He shouted across to it before it dove back underwater, emerging behind Skarmory, who had dove at the sight of its target, and fired off, letting it know what it thought by crunching down on its tail and sending its flying into the wall behind Ethan as tendrils of frost coated its tail.

"Mory! Steel Smash!" Jasmine shouted from across the arena as it took to the skies again, flapping hurriedly to stay aloft. It picked up height, rising to the roof of the central room before spiraling down again, one wing glowing red, the other silver, and its beak red as well.

"Water gun!" Ethan called out, letting a stream of water fire from inside the ocean. The pent up pressure carried it straight at the avian, which in its fury didn't even move to avoid it, instead letting gravity allow it to maintain its velocity as it bore through the attack. Once the stream it died down, Ethan noticed that the red sheen had disappeared from its beak. One wing was still rusty colored in its glow, the other glimmering silvery white.

"Feraligatr, Ice Fang!" He shouted as they made contact.

Skarmory's good wing hit Feraligatr straight into the back, increasing the strain to avoid buckling as the gator clamped its freezing jaws onto its bad wings, drawing screeches from it. They stayed in a stalemate like that for barely a few seconds, but it seemed like an eternity to Ethan as he tried to process what to do.

Then, before he could say anything, Feraligatr tightened its grip, drawing a loud screech form Skarmory before tossing it a few feet into the air and diving. IT came back up a second later as Skarmory crashed downwards, left wing frozen for the most part. Ethan watched in awe as Feraligatr spun in midair, its tail coated in a thick layer of water, which slammed into the bird and sent it flying first into the wall and then crashing into the water.

"Ice beam!" Ethan shouted, hoping Jasmine wouldn't have time to react.

"Hyper Beam!" She shouted.

Ethan had no idea if either Pokemon had heard them through the water. He could see Feraligatr swimming swiftly towards Skarmory, which was fluttering its wings as it managed to get its head above water, badly injured at this point. Not to say that Feraligatr wasn't. One could only be thrown into walls so many times.

Ethan watched as Feraligatr batted the bird out of the water, each with their chest glowing. It jumped out of the water itself and fired off an ice beam, which hit Skarmory squarely in the chest, sending it careening as the ice bounced off its chest, freezing the water's surface before either landed. Then Ethan had to shield his eyes as Skarmory fired off a beam so powerful, and so blinding, even with his hand over his shut eyes, he could still see reddish light, not the usual black darkness when one covers closed eyes with hands.

He opened his eyes to see Skarmory standing upright on the ice, defiant and triumphant as Feraligatr collapsed, face first onto the freezing floor. He picked up the ultra-ball, recalling Feraligatr and looked at Jasmine, who shook her head. She wasn't going to change Pokemon.

"Typhlosion, flame wheel!" He shouted, releasing Typhlosion directly into the air.

Already in motion, the fire type curled up into a wheel, setting fire to its whole body as it slammed into Skarmory, melting a hole in the ice and let it sink. Then it sprinted back to Ethan's side as Jasmine recalled her collapsed Pokemon.

"I'm sorry but it's over for you now. You fought well!" She called out, readying a black pokeball with two bumps on it. "Rusty! Battle ready!"

Ethan could feel a rush of wind as a massive amount of air was displaced, a massive serpent, about thirty feet long, formed on the ice, crushing it and letting its tail sink into the water, only somewhat perturbed by it. Ethan pulled out his phone immediately, scanning it and waiting as it popped up in Brendan's databases.

Steelix. They evolve from Onix. Quite literally iron bodies made up of connected boulder like sections, like Onix's body, but with spikes protruding from some of them. Its head is massive and flatter, and it has a weak spot below its jaw, in the hollow of it's…. Neck? Whatever, an ordinary adult Steelix is about thirty feet long. They can burrow at about sixty to seventy kilometers an hour. Known as the Iron Snake Pokemon. They're weak to contact force, but physical attacks, you may as well be hitting an iron wall. Their defense is about as high as it gets. Bear in mind that they're easy to land hits on. Aboveground, they're some of the slowest Pokemon around. They're only fast underground.

Ethan bit his tongue to stop himself from swearing as he stared 'Rusty' down. Rusty was about thirty feet long, and not one part of it was rusty, every single corner and crevice of its iron body polished till it shone. Its jaw was perpetually revealing its massive platinum like white teeth, ready to crush anything they touched. From three or four of its bodily sections, a massive spike protruded on the left and the right. Ethan bit his tongue again as they started spinning.

"Typhlosion, all out with flamethrower and flame wheel!" GO!" he shouted, sending the fire type spinning all over the field to land hits on the amused Steel type. The flame wheels didn't do so much, but the flamethrowers were doing visible damage. Until Rusty slammed its rotating tail into Typhlosion, sending it into the wall, all the way, and knocking the breath out of its lung. Rusty was hurt, its hide was even melted slightly in some places, but it could easily take the jimmy out of Typhlosion.

"Typhlosion, up its body with flame wheel!" he shouted, hoping to get an edge on it as Typhlosion sped up its rotation and ran up Rusty's body before Rusty could do anything.

"Brick break into its jaw, followed by flamethrower!" he shouted as Typhlosion approached, Rusty reaching up and slamming its tail into itself to crush Typhlosion. The fire type avoided the attack, letting Rusty hit itself hard and stun itself, before slamming into the concave crevice below its jaw with glowing rusty limbs, and then as it fell, firing a flamethrower into it.

Now Rusty was actually hurt. Granted half the damage was from its own hit, but it was something. Typhlosion fell, curling up into a wheel as the Steelix's haphazardly swinging tail began to glow silver in an actual iron tail and batted it back into a wall. Typhlosion was seriously getting hurt now.

"Typhlosion! Evaporate everything!" He shouted as Typhlosion paid attention to the cracked and melting ice below its feet, flaring up overheating its body to not only melt everything but evaporate all the water too.

The ice beneath and around Typhlosion turned to steam so fast the water never touched it, the steam shrouding it and hiding it from sight as the ice around Rusty turned to water first, causing it to make a pained, creaking sound. Then it turned to steam, obscuring all vision.

"Typhlosion! Same thing, once more!" He shouted, letting Typhlosion flare up and sprint up Rusty's body. The Steelix tried to hit it again, this time cutting it badly, but still hitting itself. Ethan could hear his heartbeat until a loud smack sounded across the arena, the sound of Typhlosion crashing it the crevice of Rusty's jaw covered in fighting type contact force, then fired a flamethrower into the same crevice. Rusty creaked in pain, screeching once before Jasmine shouted.

"Rusty flash cannon, then Hyper Beam!" she called out.

Ethan's heart sank and a glowing silver pillar of energy hit Typhlosion square in the chest and sent it flying into the wall. Then Rusty unleashed hyper beam on Typhlosion, the white column even brighter than Skarmory's. Unable to move to avoid it, Typhlosion took the hit, bearing the brunt of the attack and slipping out of consciousness.

"And the battle is mine challenger! But you fought well and I have some interesting things to tell Steven about you! My team for four to six badges is a bit tougher than some. I'm known as the Iron Maiden for a reason! My defense is an unmovable wall, and my Pokemon are like broadswords. A blade easily able to block anything, and deal heavy hits with every move. You should be able to take on Chuck with a day of training in the caves by Cianwood though. Then come back to me." She called out as he recalled Typhlosion immediately, whispering to the ultra-ball as the platforms sank down to the ground.

He nodded at her, sprinting to the elevator and getting in to rush back to the Pokemon center. He pressed the button repeatedly, as if it would make the elevator go faster, and sprinted out of the building as soon as he was up, running down the now slightly busy streets to the Pokemon Center. It was nine now. He dashed in the doors and to the nurses' station, unclipping the three ultra balls and running to a nurse.

"Hi could you heal these three please, I took on Jasmine." He said, handing them in with his trainer tag. Then he went to a map to see where Cianwood was.

Olivine was up in the north west of the region, and its entire south side was a coastline. Cianwood was at the bottom of the map, directly south and far down, past even the treacherous Whirl Islands. She had said that he should train in the caves by Cianwood. Indeed the map depicted cave networks and cliffs by the beach town, allowing with a massive blot where construction as being signified further west. Well then to Cianwood it was.


	8. Between a Rock and a Hard Place

**Chapter 8: Between a Rock and a Hard Place**

 **A/N: All I have to say is that I hope and believe I can keep up this update pace. Enjoy**

* * *

Ethan looked up from the map where he was tracing lines with his finger to see a nurse standing in front of him holding a clipboard.

"Mr. Photon?" the nurse asked, looking at him. Ethan looked at her face. She couldn't have been more than seventeen. Her face was thin, her skin healthy and her eyes blue.

"Yes." Ethan replied, snapping back to attention. Her hair was blonde and she was barely five foot two. He would have dwarfed her had he stood up.

"Your Pokemon are being healed, and the nurses wish to keep them for a while. Fights with Jasmine often involve Pokemon repeatedly being blown back into the walls of the pit, and yours obviously have. With the strength of a Steelix. I must say, I commend you for making it as far as Rusty with just four badges. In any case, you'll get a call once you're Pokemon are fighting fit. Thank you." She explained, walking off to the nurses' station.

Ethan noted how she stood by the side of one of the nurses, never moving, never dealing with any patient, except by the order of the nurses. Then it hit him. No wonder she was so young. An intern. Or a volunteer at that. He stood up and stretched, walking back to the room to see if the other's had woken yet, and since he didn't have too much to do. In any case.

He walked down the corridor until he reached his room, stepping inside. It was around ten in the morning, and the people he was sharing the room with had good reason to be awake. Yet none of them were, save Katie and Aaron.

"Where the hell have you been? I heard you wake up at seven! Nothing opens here at seven!" Aaron asked, utterly flabbergasted, his belt done around his waist, all his Pokemon in their containers, clipped to the belt.

"The gym is." Ethan replied pointedly, then gestured to his near empty belt with a sigh. "I lost."

For the first time since he had arrived yesterday, he heard Katie speak. Her voice was soft, yet it had a quality which made Ethan want to drop everything and listen. "Jasmine is veritable nightmare for anyone whose team isn't entirely focused on type advantages, or on an offense strong enough to match her defense. She was the only gym leader I ever took on, and even without any badges, she's a pain to fight."

"Come on, let's get some breakfast." Aaron suggested, standing up and bending back to avoid hitting a hanging light in the corner of the room.

"Why not." Ethan replied. He turned on his heels and walked out after Aaron, who had moved around him, all the way to the cafeteria. Katie walked behind them, everything about her silent, even her footsteps were inaudible.

A few minutes later, the four of them, Juliet sitting with them, were digging into breakfast at a table in the half filled cafeteria. Ethan stared at Juliet for a second as he recalled something that Aaron had said the other day. Frowning, he turned to Aaron, who was sitting next to him.

"Aaron, you didn't by any chance have Guardian raised in a daycare did you? I was shown around the local daycare by the owner, a relative of someone I know, and he showed me an Aggron. His name was Guardian too." Ethan asked, his brow furrowed.

"Nah. Not a chance in hell. Guardian is one of my two oldest Pokemon. The only one I've had longer than Guardian is Juliet. I trained her, and Bastion on my own. I made a point of it to train my Pokemon myself. Besides, that last detail makes it entirely wrong anyway. Guardian's female. Like I said, I trained her myself. " Aaron frowned, the ring of milk around his lips making him look non serious.

"Out of curiosity, what Pokemon do you have Ethan?" Katie asked, shifting slightly, one hand below the table.

"Typhlosion, Feraligatr and Specter, my Haunter, are with the nurses right now. Clipped to my belt I have Riolu, my newest Pokemon, and Scyther, one of my two oldest." Ethan replied, picking at the crumbs of his waffle with his fork. "You?"

"Dragonite. Gyarados. That's it." She remarked, reaching for the bagel in her plate and eating. "What're your plans after you get your Pokemon Ethan? Training and taking on Jasmine again?"

"No. I'm going to act on some advice she offered. I'm going to go to Cianwood City down south. Try and go train in the caves by the city and then take on Chuck. After I beat him I'll come back and take on Jasmine again." Ethan replied. "Probably have to take a boat though. From a map, it's about a hundred and eighty nautical miles. An ordinary ship that won't empty my pockets on this one trip, would take at least fifteen hours to get there. One hundred and eighty nautical miles is way too much to cover on a Feraligatr, especially since the only land between here and there are the Whirl Islands, which are one, exactly at the one hundred nautical miles marker from here, and two, are surrounded by Whirlpools that take extremely powerful Pokemon or aerial transport to traverse."

"Tell you what we'll do. We're going down to the docks after this to find the ship that's taking us to Hoenn. I mean we've already booked tickets, but there are some things I want to find out. And I have to go register myself as on duty, since the only place I registered myself to be on vacation on is Johto. Like an idiot, I forgot to add open waters to the list. Come with us." Aaron suggested, standing up.

Juliet disappeared in Ethan's peripheral vision, blinking out of existence without any warning or any tells. He stood up, put his plate on a rack and walked out by Aaron's side. Ethan walked ahead, going to the nurses' counter to find out what was happening.

"Nothing much Mr. Photon. Your Pokemon will be fine. Your Typhlosion had a broken bone, but then as you well know, Pokemon Biology has opened itself up to us so much that your Pokemon is resting with a constant stream of cell regeneration accelerant, and healing serum being administered to it. I think it should be ready by six this evening. Your others are pretty much fine." The nurse on duty had replied after checking in with someone else.

Nodding, Ethan rejoined the other two, who had caught up, and walked down to the rooms, re arranging his things and packing some of them away whilst Katie washed up. He had most of his stuff in his pack and his bag by the time Katie was done. They walked out of the center together, making their way down the now lively streets to the docks. Ethan stared at the tall buildings in the background for a moment as he registered the fact that more than half of Olivine's offices were taken up by law firms. He could see silver or gold lettering, naming the partners of each firm, sparkling in the sunlight over the entrances.

He walked straight down with the other two. Katie's choice of a tank top was drawing some stares, but Aaron next to her and he himself on her other side, were dissuading any encouraged onlookers. For the first time since he had reached Olivine yesterday, Ethan properly laid eyes on the famous Olivine Port.

The cobbled street from which the docks extended had festive lights strung up all around and over it, old stained glass lights hanging from buildings. Shops, cafés and restaurants dominated the property available on one side of the road, and stalls and paths down to the docks lined the others. Beyond the roads, straight down past the stalls, was the port itself. It was a massive harbor with over fifty different ships tethered to land.

At the far end on one side were six massive oil tankers, freight ships next to them, followed by fishing boats, then ferries, and then cruise ships. After the cruise ships came smaller passenger vessels, still capable of carrying up to a hundred people, and slowly they sizes of the ships decreased until at the other end were small rowboats out for hire.

Ethan immediately zeroed in on the smaller passenger ships. To his disappointment there was no indication of where each ship was going. Then, he spotted a ticketing office near the larger ships. Katie lifted her arm and pointed at a large ship amidst the cruises, the lettering on its side glittering gold in the bright sunlight. Ethan squinted, reading the letters off the side of the ship.

"The SS Anne." He read, staring at it. It was a massive ship, a luxury cruise meant to hold probably five hundred or more people. He could make out three decks and two pools on one of them alone. The cabins had tinted windows on the sides facing the sea. Not the entire wall, yes, but still quite a bit of it. Then Ethan noticed the glass sections of the hull. The upper part of the hull had reinforced glass windows in some places, barely visible in this shallow water due to the ship sitting on a raised rail in the dock. Cabins with an underwater view. Those would cost the most he guessed.

"That's our ship. Cabins are on the main deck." Aaron stated, walking down the wharf with the others all the way to the ship.

Standing by the ship, directing around fifty men who were rushing about carrying out various tasks, was the captain, an old man of around sixty with a protruding belly and six great balls clipped to his belt. He was wearing an admiral's uniform. Aaron walked up to the man, as many other people had done in front of them, and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Excuse me sir." Aaron began, and then the conversation was inaudible to Ethan from there. He walked over to a stall for a minute to examine the trinkets it had on display as Katie walked over to Aaron. He turned around to see Aaron with one arm around Katie's waist. In that moment he decided to strike out on his own for the remainder of the day.

He walked back up to them and tapped Aaron on the shoulder, getting him to turn around.

"Hey guys, I'm going to be a while, I need to find a good ship and negotiate a price. I guess I'll see you two in the rooms later then." He suggested, noting the approval in Katie's eyes as she nodded, leading Aaron away.

He smiled for a second, turning on his heels and walked off to the ticketing office. It was a small building, thin and long, about forty five feet wide and much longer, built into the hillside. For all Ethan knew it expanded below the streets. The side facing the sea was taken up by multiple sales booths, with red velvet ropes forming lines. Each line had a sign over it. Out of twenty lines, five read Cianwood City, whilst there were some lines dedicated to lone Cruises. He walked into one of the half full lines for ships to Cianwood city and waited. Even as he stood in line he could see ships leaving the harbor, docked fishing boats leaving late, or small charter ships and rowboats going to and fro from the harbor. It took about a quarter of an hour until it was his turn. The cashier was a bored looking man in his early twenties. His skin was pale from sitting in front of a screen daily, sheltered from the sun, and his eyes were a watery blue.

"Hi. Are there any ships going to Cianwood after nine tonight?" Ethan asked, trying to put on a friendly smile.

"One minute sir." The man replied in a lazy drawl as his fingers started to move over the keyboard. He was moving so slowly Ethan could hear his fingers clacking against each individual key.

"Well sir. The next ship to Cianwood city departing after nine tonight, is the Sailor's Sprint, leaving at six tomorrow morning. But I'm afraid it's fully booked. After that we have the SS Aval at five p.m. tomorrow night. There are tickets available for the SS Aval, which is a two day journey at a leisurely pace to Cianwood. However they won't be cheap. The only tickets available are business cabins." He drawled on, unwrapping a piece of chewing gum and popping it into his mouth.

"How much?" Ethan asked. He knew he couldn't afford to buy a ticket for more than two hundred dollars, or else he would lose too much money.

"Six hundred dollars sir." He replied, every pop of the bubbles forming in his mouth louder than life.

"For one hundred and eighty nautical miles!? Isn't there anything else?" Ethan replied, aghast.

"The next ship after that sir is the day after tomorrow at seven AM. The voyage of the Amber Sea-Tail, docking tomorrow at eight AM. One ticket would be one hundred and forty dollars." The man replied.

Ethan stopped, doing the math. A two day journey meant he would get there on the eleventh, but since he would depart two days later, he would arrive on the thirteenth. That was not an option. He had to be back by the fourteenth.

"Thank you sir." With that he walked off to the line for information about charter ships. It was entirely empty. He walked up to the cashier, a woman with brown hair, light brown eyes and pale skin wearing a navy suit, blue shirt and a white ascot.

"Hi. I have two questions. First off, how come there are barely any ships going to Cianwood? And secondly, can you recommend a good charter ship I can check out, just for one person travelling to get to Cianwood." Ethan asked with a smile, looking at the other lines for Cianwood for a moment.

"Well sir, its storm season in Cianwood right now. There hasn't been a day in two weeks when it wasn't pouring down on the city. Not many people want to go to a beach town in weather like that. The only people going are going to the Safari zone or to explore caves. As for a good charter ship, go check the Current Cutter, the Loan Vessel, and Captain Alexander at the docks. One of them should be able to give you a fair deal." The woman answered quickly, scrawling the names down on a piece of paper and handing them to Ethan.

"Thanks." Ethan replied, taking the slip and walking down the docks until he saw the first of the ships, the Current Cutter. It was a small white vessel with a crew of three people, and as advertised by the pamphlet attached to a post, could provide travel for up to five people.

He walked up to the captain, a man in his early twenties with slick black hair.

"Sir how much for one person to Cianwood?" he asked, holding out a hand.

"Two hundred and fifty dollars kid. Two hundred and eighty for a trainer. Seeing as you have to release your Pokemon on deck to feed." The man grunted, shaking his hand.

"Thanks, I might be back." Ethan retorted, turning and going on to search for another ship. He noted the lack of pokeballs on this man's belt. It made him uncomfortable. It took him another quarter of an hour, but he reached the dock of the Loan Vessel, where a man with grey hair, tanned skin and a Gyarados sitting by his side at the edge of the dock was looking at the ship.

"Sir are you the captain?" He asked, the presence of a powerful Pokemon by the captain slightly calming.

"Aye. Where can I take you lad?" He asked, extending a rough, calloused hand.

"How much to Cianwood for one?" inquired. "And how long will it take you?" he added quickly.

"One hundred and eighty dollars if you can get help us weld a plate on. Two forty if you can't. Our welder's asking around three hundred dollars from us for this project, and I'm looking to save us anything I can manage. A dollar a nautical mile. Travelling at ten knots an hour, we can make it there in eighteen hours." He replied gruffly.

"Sold." Ethan replied, shaking his hand. "Can we take off at nine tonight?"

"Be back here by eight thirty and we can. Leave your information with Callie. Callie!" he shouted, calling a young girl of around nineteen with tanned skin and blonde hair from the ship, one of two ships hands. "Take the lads information. He'll provide a welder and we set sail for Cianwood at nine!"

"Yes granddad. Wesley's looking for you. Says he needs you to look at something!" She shouted back, scurrying down the gangplank as she grabbed a clipboard.

She reached him, breathless, as the Gyarados behind them plunged into the ocean, lurking around the ship in shallow water.

"So. Granddad said to take your information for our trip to Cianwood. I need your name, age, status as a trainer, which is formal battler, etcetera, and how many badges you have. I need half the down payment up front right now to make sure you don't ditch us before departure, and the rest you can give us on board. And I need to see some ID." It took Ethan a moment to process what she was saying, since she was speaking so fast.

"My name's Ethan Photon, I'm fifteen, I am a formal trainer taking on the gyms, and I have four badges, from Violet City, Azalea Town, Goldenrod City and Ecruteak City." Ethan pulled out his trainer tag and handed it to her before he looked around for an ATM. All his money was on his trainer tag.

"I take it you couldn't get Jasmine's badge and you're heading to Chuck now?" she asked, filing away the information she had noted down in a small folder.

"Yes. Is there an ATM anywhere nearby? All my money is on my tag." He grimaced, holding it up to see the two chips embedded in the left side of the Indigo Crest, the sides that made up Johto.

"Wise move. Not many four badge trainers get Jasmine's badge. And there should be one at the Ticketing Bureau. I'll be waiting for you here." Callie replied, going back on board with the folder.

Ethan turned to the Ticketing Bureau and began walking in its direction, and sure enough, he could see the ATM he had asked about. It was at the side of the bureau with its own velvet roping by the sides to make a line. He walked all the way to it and got in the line, behind only a few tourists, presumably. Around a dozen minutes later he was standing back at the dock, waiting for Callie to re-appear. True to her word, she came out a minute later, making a point of it to stand in the exact same spot where she had originally talked to Ethan.

"Just out of curiosity how many Pokemon does your father have on board, or for that matter, the crew as a whole?" he asked, hoping he would get a straightforward answer.

"You've already seen Granddad's Gyarados. Apart from him my granddad has a Machamp, and his old Noctowl. My Gyarados, Granddad's one's kid, is on my belt, and Wesley, our last crew member, has a Mantine." She replied. "Now we're done for now. Be back at eight thirty, like granddad said, and weld what we need, then we're off."

Ethan nodded and turned on his heels, checking his watch. It was around noon and he had at least seven hours to kill. He decided to walk off to the lighthouse, see what it was like, since it was open to tourists and a hub for trainers apparently. From what he had heard, dozens of trainers who had climbed high for the view camped out inside the lighthouse for many a night, challenging others who came by them to battles. He could see the massive building on its little hill, jutting out from the harbor at one end.

He managed to walk all the way down to it before he realized how truly massive it was. The building was at least seven stories tall, made of bricks individually painted off white and cream, forming a gradient pattern. The top of the octagonal building was hidden behind a metal balcony fixed into the buildings with over a hundred different beams and thousands of rivets, secured from the bottom, and presumably from the bottom.

From the top, in the daylight, no beam shone, but Ethan recalled what he had seen from higher up in the city, from the Pokemon center and the streets behind it. Atop the tower was the light room, an octagonal room with mirrors aligned to the windows inside, with two parallel gaps in them. The room had a flat roof as well.

Ethan stared directly ahead of him, at the steps carved into the steep slope of the hill, the whole thing about twenty feet tall. He raised his foot and planted it firmly onto the first step as he started climbing. The steps themselves were carved narrow and tall, as if to dissuade visitors from coming up to the light tower. Indeed there only seemed to be one couple at the foot of the lighthouse when he reached, an old man and his wife taking a picture by the sea. There was a battle going on to the other side of them, a young boy of around eight fighting another boy his age. It was a Pidgey versus a hoothoot. Ethan smiled as he recalled when he was battling at that level, and at how far he'd come.

Turning to the massive doors of the lighthouse he stared in. The iron doors were made and hinged to the corners of the sides attached to the flat face he was looking at, and made a sharp turn to form corners and join, forming the flat wall. But they had been swung open, allowing light to stream into the otherwise relatively dark room.

Instinctively placed on hand on his belt, slightly put off when he remembered that there were only two ultra-balls on it right now. He started to doubt whether he should try and climb this tower with only two of his Pokemon. A feeling of warmth rushed into him from one of the ultra-balls, one that was highlighted with a deep blue, dispelling all the doubts and making him determined to make it to the top with Scyther and Riolu. Silently he thanked Arceus that one of his Pokemon would always be able to understand him like that.

He looked around, his eyes adjusting to the lower light level as he saw only one person lingering around, someone who had fallen asleep with a machop by his side. He walked around the room, his footsteps echoing in the empty space and going out of the small square inlets for light, about as big as his hand. He walked around until he saw a ladder fixed to a wall on the left side of the room through a gap in the cedar beams that were wedged between the roof and the floor. There was an elevator in the back, but it he wanted to explore. An elevator wouldn't kill time. This would. He gripped the rungs, and climbed up quickly, finding himself on a much more active floor. Active in the sense that there were construction workers there, barring the area and the further ladders off with yellow tape.

"Oi kid. This place is under renovation for weak flooring in the lower floors. Everyone anywhere but the top floor has been evacuated. Didn't you notice the cedar beams holding this floor up?" A worker called out, drawing attention as every person in the building turned to him.

"My bad. I'll get the last person out of the ground floor." Ethan raised his palms and walked back to the ladder, clambering down quickly. He walked over to the guy sleeping and shook him until he woke up.

"There's construction about to start for the flooring above us. We need to get out." He said gruffly, walking to the door as another construction worker followed them down.

"Feel free to take the elevator to the top if you want to. I'm barring the rest off with yellow tape." He shouted from the other side of the room.

Ethan raised an arm with his thumb out, and walked to the elevator. He pressed the button and waited for the vessel to arrive at the ground floor as the other fellow picked up his gear and left, his machop by his side. A minute later a buzzer sounded and the metal doors slid open silently to reveal a room made entirely of metal. Ethan stepped in as the elevator automatically went up, the only two destinations it had being the bottom and top floors. IT took another minute to reach the top floor, Ethan tapping his foot to the beat of the waiting music all the while.

He reached the top and stepped out into the bright sunlight, squinting as his eyes adjusted once more from the dark and dank of the lower floors. Now that he was actually in the top he could see three things. Firstly the elevator was made entirely of smoothly curved glass which allowed light to pass through and made it seem like the capsule was metal for the shaft below it. In the center of the room were six mirrors forming an Octagon missing two opposite sides. Standing in the center of the room was none other than Jasmine, feeding a large yellow Pokemon with a red bulb on its tail, and one on its head. Three thick black stripes ringed its neck, as they did its tail. Its stomach was white and its eyes beady and black, and it stood at nearly five feet tall.

"Oh hello! Ethan!" Jasmine whirled around at the sound of the elevator arriving, smiling as she ran a hand down the yellow Pokémon's sparking fur. "Welcome to the light room."

The other two things were that first off the windows were convex on both sides apparently, magnifying the beams of light which would be fired through them. Lastly, there was no light source in the room. Then it hit him. The Pokemon Jasmine was petting was the light source.

"Hi." He responded, whipping out his phone immediately to scan the Pokemon and wait as Brendan's databases generated a response.

Ampharos, the light Pokemon. They're electric types, and their tails and heads have bulbs that shine bright enough to be used in lighthouses. In fact the one in Olivine is home to a tame Ampharos by the name of Amphy. Touching a hostile one can result in paralysis, but they tend to be friendly.

"That's interesting. Might I ask how you've come to own, apparently, from our battle and right now, a database on all of Johto's Pokemon?" Jasmine asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I have a friend. He dedicated years to gathering information on all of Indigo's Pokemon, not to mention as much as he could on Hoenn before he moved there and some on the rest of the world." Ethan replied, slipping his phone back into his pocket.

"Interesting. Well, I wish you good luck in the rest of your journey, and I hope to see you in my battlefield again, as a more weathered battler. If you'll excuse me I'd like to finish grooming Amphy fully before he's on duty tonight." She smiled, gesturing towards the tangled knots of fur that even he could see from the elevator.

"Of course." Ethan replied, taking a good look around the room and getting back in the elevator. He made his way down and out of the lighthouse, his trip there an overall disappointment. It had taken him fifteen minutes to walk there from where he had been, and fifteen minutes to walk back, not to mention the half an hour wasted inside. He walked back to the harbor, looking around to see what was going on. There was some sort of spectacle going on.

He joined the crowd, standing on his toes and peering over the heads of multiple people to see a man riding a unicycle, juggling pokeballs, catching each on deftly. He sighed, stepping back and walking around the crowd to the top of the city once more. That took him another half an hour at the brisk pace he was moving at. He finally reached the Pokemon center and went inside, going to the counter first, to get two of his Pokemon back, to his surprise.

"We just want to keep Typhlosion for some further healing till about seven now. That should be it. Your Feraligatr and Haunter are ready for normal activity." She smiled.

Ethan nodded, clipping them back to his belt and walked back to the room. Only Aaron and Katie were there, flipping through every channel on the TV.

"It took you that long to find a ship?" Aaron asked, feigning a look of utter shock and disgust as Katie bit her lip to avoid bursting into giggles.

"No good sir. I was unable to find a captain, hither or dither, who was willing to ferry me across yonder treacherous seas to the jagged coasts of wood that is Cian." Ethan mocked a bow and smiled as Katie burst out into laughter Aaron following suite. "Nah I went and checked out the lighthouse after. It's being renovated from the second floor up to the last before the top."

He walked back to his room and stuffed the remainder of his belongings back into his pack before collapsing on the bed for the remainder of the day. When it was seven on the dot, he got up, pulled his pack over his shoulder and went down to the counter, to find Typhlosion waiting for him in his Ultra Ball. Grinning like an idiot that he finally had all his friends with him again for the first time since morning, he checked out and walked off, down to the harbor.

In the evening, the lights strung all around stood out, the tinted glass lamps, candles and fairy lights making for a sight which belonged in a postcard. To save the memory in his vision, he pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of the street and the harbor before walking down to the dock where the Loan Vessel was docked.

It was around seven forty when he walked up the gangplank and knocked on the door of the bridge. Almost instantly, it opened to reveal Callie and her grandfather standing in the doorway.

"Oh good. He's here. Wesley, bring about the new screen." The captain instructed as Wesley raised a leg and climbed out of the bridge over the controls. That was when Ethan realized there was no window or screen there.

"You see that metal rim around the edges of the place where our one eighty degree window should be?" Callie pointed out the thick, riveted metal around the edges of the walls as she spoke. "Our windscreen broke yesterday, so granddad bought a new high tech one that functions as the computer amongst other things. We've rigged up the wires and everything. And the company's assured us it can take the welding heat, and it supposed to be clamped onto with hot metal, but our welder's refusing to do it for less than three hundred dollars. We were about to call him when you showed up. You'll be melting the rims until your Pokemon can open them and we can fit the screen inside, then re-seal them."

Ethan nodded hesitantly as He saw Wesley place a massive piece of tinted glass on the deck and look in. Looking at the screen for a moment, he picked Typhlosion's capsule off his belt and released the fire type into the cabin.

"Hey buddy! Good to have you out of the nurses' station!" Ethan smiled, scratching the enthusiastic fire type behind the ears. "Can you melt the metal around the walls and reshape it like these folks say?"

Typhlosion nodded without a moment's hesitation and scurried over to the walls, spewing a stream of flames onto rim and melting it from every side until it was soft and moldable.

"Good now wrench it open from the outside." Ethan instructed, as the fire type jumped outside, nearly hitting Wesley, and wrenched up the rims with its front paws. Wordlessly the ship hand fixed the glass panel into the gap and watched as Typhlosion clamped down the metal once again, checking its shape.

"Good. Recall it. GYARADOS!" Callie's grandfather shouted out as Ethan recalled his Pokemon. He looked out of the tinted glass window to see the massive serpent, probably twenty five feet long, rise out of the ocean.

"Spray the window!" He shouted again.

For a minute, nothing happened, then Ethan heard a massive rumbling noise, like a faraway avalanche. He could see something in Gyarados's perpetually open maw, but what it was he couldn't tell. He watched for a moment until he nearly fell on his back when the water type blasted the windshield with a cascade of water. When the relentless pounding stopped, he could see steam rising from the metal.

"Let's give it a shot now." The old man said, turning to Wesley. "Fire her up."

The ship hand nodded silently, moving a bunch of levers and switches as the rumble of an engine sounded. Then the screen lit up, still transparent. He watched as the computer inside it came to life, displaying maps and alignments, and an assortment of other things which made absolutely no sense to him.

"Brilliant! Callie show the lad the bedding room! We set sail in a quarter of an hour!" He laughed in joy as Callie nodded, to no one in particular, before she steered Ethan out of the room and into the other room on the upper deck, a small lounge, and from there down to the bedding room and the kitchens and engine room in the hull.

"Top left bunk is yours." Callie said, walking out to the deck of the ship. Ethan climbed the ladder back to the lounge after he set his pack and bag down on the bed, sitting down on one of the two couches on opposite sides of the coffee table. He sat as the boat was spurred to life by the crew of three who would be sailing to Cianwood City with him.

A few minutes passed as the captain and his crew went about the process of checking everything on the ship and untying their tether from dock. He heard a loud scraping noise and looked out the window to see a Machamp drawing in the gangplank by pulling a crank repeatedly, and swiftly. The boat began to rock slowly in the light waves of the ocean. He looked out the other side to see a pair of Gyarados leap out of the ocean together and dive back into the ocean together, entangled. One was the one he had seen earlier, the other was much shorter, about eighteen feet long as a whole, and had white whiskers, unlike the other's blue whiskers. He nearly fell forward as the boat moved backward using the force of the engine now running at full capability.

The captain pushed the ship out of dock backwards and then turned around in a small circle to face the right way before he pushed the throttle down. The boat started to pick up speed, and this time Ethan was ready, gripping the sides of the couch, which was bolted to the floor he realized. He could see the light fading out of the sky entirely, as they began their voyage into the night, and then a ray of light so intense it made it feel like day once more, cut across his line of sight, growing thinner and going around to the other side. He clambered about and peered out the window to see the lighthouse by the twinkling Olivine lights, shining bright for approaching ships to see.

He reached for his phone, realizing he should put in a call before he left the signal range. He dialed his mother's number and waited, praying silently that the last tower on the coast had a wide range. Within a few seconds she picked up the phone.

"Hi mom." Ethan began. "I'm leaving Olivine by ship right now for Cianwood."

"Young man you need to call me more often. When was the last time you called me? A week ago from Ecruteak!?" She scolded him down the phone, and Ethan was sure that his face had gone a deep shade of red.

"Sorry mom. I'll make sure I do that. Anyway, I thought I'd call for a minute before I leave the range of the tower. I'll call you once I'm in Cianwood city." He replied.

"Okay sweetie. Take care." And with that she cut the line, just as her voice started to crackle on Ethan's end. He slipped the phone back into his pocket and looked back to see Olivine's coast twinkling in the distance as it grew smaller on the horizon.

"Off to Cianwood… Whatever the future holds for me." Ethan murmured as he watched the lights fade away slowly, blinking out of existence.

"Mate. Dinner's at nine." Wesley was standing opposite him in front of the door from the lounge to the bridge, arms crossed.

"Thanks." Ethan checked his watch. It was eight twenty now.

"Captain says we should make land in Cianwood at around two in the afternoon tomorrow." Wesley finished and walked back out onto the deck, keeping an eye on the sea as he went about various tasks that needed to be carried out. A little bit later Callie emerged from the bridge and climbed down to the bedding and the kitchens. She didn't return. Ethan then assumed it was her who would be preparing whatever dinner was. It didn't really matter. He planned on sleeping away at least twelve hours of the journey, if he could manage it.

He stood up after a while and walked into the bridge, to see nothing active on the new windshield save a grid which was angled to be laid out on what was visible of the sea to a camera outside Ethan assumed. That was with the exemption of a small map in the upper left corner of the screen. He caught a glimpse of one of the two Gyarados outside, the shorter one, jumping out of the water once more and back in as it followed the ship. Ethan followed one of its spikes as it leaped, leading his eyes to a thick pulsing green line trailing through the grids, by a small nearly invisible compass at the bottom of the screen.

"This thing's outlined a path for us to follow. A good path at that, same one I've been sailing for decades now." The captain remarked, having noted his presence. "The name's Allister by the way. Allister McIvor. I already know your name from your forms lad. Tell me, what's taking you to Cianwood."

"I'm going there to challenge Chuck and train in the Cliffside caves near Cianwood. I'm aiming for the Indigo Conference at some point." Ethan replied, looking out into the darkness, lit up for a stretch ahead of them by a seeker light in the nose of the ship.

"Aye. Good to know that you have your sights fixed firmly on one thing. It helps to be determined. Come now take a look at the maps. I'll teach you some things about the Indigo Waters. I've been sailing them since I was younger than you are right now." Captain McIvor suggested fondly.

Ethan walked over to the table which was aught but a block with a screen for a top and looked at it, seeing a map of Indigo, no more comprehensive than ordinary maps.

"Let's start right where we are right now shall we?" He asked, tracing a finger along the route from Olivine to Cianwood. "These waters are fairly calm, and inhabited by Remoraid, Tentacool, Magikarp and the occasional Tentacruel at the surface, or in shallow waters. No one's seen wild Gyarados out here in years."

"Then deeper down, you'll start to find more Pokemon, like Mantyke first, then Octillery near the ocean floor, and swimming around the ocean floor and gliding majestically across trenches you might find Mantine, probably the most powerful Pokemon to live in these seas as far as we know."

"The sea here at the top all the way seems calm, and the sea all around shallow parts is, and for the most part, until you go to depths, it is calm all around. But down near the deeper parts, near underwater trenches and ravines, you might get tangled in currents that none have fought before. Only the Mantine down there dare to brave these currents. Then there are the Whirl Islands. They're a mercy to a traveler thrown from the whirlpools, but the whirlpools themselves are a bane. See, a boat, unless it's about a hundred meters or longer, can very easily get entangled in a whirlpool. Even larger ships do. The only reason I've made every voyage safely is thanks to Gyarados. The old serpent uses whirlpool to make breaks in the current and allows us to pass through very easily. Takes a lot out of him though. That's another reason why there are only five ships dedicated entirely to travelling to Cianwood." Allister went on, stopping to pull out a pipe from his jacket and take a puff.

"East of Olivine waters are easy currents to traverse, though the waves get very choppy around Goldenrod as you sail south to traverse the tip of Johto's landmasses." He traced his finger along the map the whole time, showing Ethan exactly what he was talking about. "There's a small inlet near New Bark Town. Leads to the Tohjo Falls. Barely large enough for this old creeker to make it through. From there, you can only sail up so far east. The river stops after a while in Kanto. Out from the inlet, its smooth sailing down to the Vermillion coasts, past Pallet. It's possible to dock there. Getting to Cinnibar, the currents are strong, but there's aught much to it. It's getting past the Seafoam Islands that's the real problem. The storms get bad there, bad enough to make a crew of weathered sailors shiver when they hear where they're sailing through. I can tell you more about the Pokemon down in all the seas and lakes after dinner, but that about wraps it up unless you want to hear what little I know about international waters."

"I'm fine for now. Thanks for the lesson. It was interesting." Ethan replied, following Callie back out as she brought Wesley and her grandfather plates to eat in the bridge.

"How long do you plan on being in Cianwood?" She asked as they sat down in the lounge to eat.

"I don't know. Two days, maybe more. I want to train a day in the caves by Cianwood, and then take on Chuck the next day. I might train more." Ethan answered, biting into the sandwich she had made. A simple dinner for a simple crew.

"Well if we haven't found any takers to go back when you're done I suppose we can bank on you to take back to Olivine?" She asked, wiping some crumbs off her lips.

"Sure. I mean I do need to get back somehow." He stated, shrugging as he finished the dinner. He took the plates down to the kitchen and washed them quickly with Callie before going over to the bunks and crashing right away in his.

* * *

Ethan woke up as he flew up from his place on the bunk and hit the roof hard, jarring him. He held a hand to where his head had made contact with the roof as he tried to recall where he was. Then he remembered as the boat rocked violently once more, as though it was on a roller coaster.

He checked his watch to see the time, noting that it was around five in the morning. He sighed and clambered out of the bunk as the boat rose again. He tripped on the ladder due to the turbulence and fell flat on his back. He leaned over onto the bunk and stretched his arms, picking up his things and sitting down to rearrange everything. He managed to fit everything from his backpack into the spare space in his travelling pack and then stuffed the backpack in as well.

He tugged at the zipper, closing it fully and then set it down again in a corner. He was about to ditch it on his bunk and go up again when Wesley literally leaped down the ladder and hit the ground hard, crouching for a moment to keep steady in the rocking boat before he stood up again.

"There's a bad storm out here. Worse than most things we've seen. Wrap your bags in this, tight, and bring them up to the upper level. We're setting up the backup engine. It goes in between the bunks." He informed him, tossing him a large bag made of shiny silvery plastic, and then walked into the engine room.

Ethan stared at the open door for a moment before a particularly nasty swell knocked him back to his senses. He picked up the bag and opened it. It was a large bag, a bit bigger than hit pack, and he managed to fit the pack in it and seal it shut. He climbed up the ladder, hauling it up and tossed it down by three other bags on the floor of the lounge.

"ETHAN! GO DOWN AND HELP WESLEY CONNECT THE BACKUP ENGINE!" the old man at the wheel shouted, struggling with the controls as Ethan saw the monstrosity they were stuck in.

On every side of the boat, waves around six meters tall at the least were crashing into the ocean, going in no particular direction. The swells extended as far as he could see in every direction. It was five in the morning, and the sun was bound to be up and shining at this time, but it might as well have been seven in the evening. Clouds had amassed in the sky, dark and angry looking.

He flinched as lightning hit a distant rock, going down through it to earth. The flash of light flooded the cabin in this dim lighting. He nearly jumped into the air as a clap of thunder sounded. Ears ringing, he scrambled down the ladder once more to Wesley, whom had with the help of the captain's Machamp, hauled a massive engine, about as big as the one in the main engine room, out of a storage space, and had unlatched over two dozen hatches in the walls of the bunk room, revealing pipes.

"Ethan! Connect them by terminal number and color!" Wesley roared over the thrum of the engine and the sound of the waves crashing against the hull.

Nodding, Ethan grabbed the nearest pipe and pulled it out, revealing a red stripe with the number six marked on the translucent silver tube. He looked around the engine, finding more than a few places for connections marked with red. He scanned them until he found number six at the back. Once more, he pulled on the tube and extended it all the way to the engine. He latched it onto the opening and sealed the holsters, clamping it down in place.

He repeated the process with three more tubes, directing Machamp who was holding four at a time, and keeping Wesley in his vision. IT took another fifteen minutes to weave the pipes through each other, prolonged by the violent spasms the ship would go into with every wave. He connected the last pipe he saw free and stepped back as Wesley moved back. Machamp leaned forward towards the crank wheel on the front of the engine and gripped it with all four arms, turning it slowly. Even over the ocean, the rumble of the engine was audible as the pipes started vibrating, their thick entangled state preventing them from flailing about.

Slowly, something filled each pipe, some filled with a thick, black liquid, petrol or diesel or something, and other filled with various things. Ethan left the room with Wesley and Machamp, only for Callie to grab him by his shoulders and drag him to a side.

"Do you have any water type Pokemon bigger than you?" She asked, barely audible.

"Yes! Feraligatr!" Ethan replied, befuddled as to where this was going.

"Good! We're teaching it dive in case anything happens!" Callie shouted over the din of the engines and the waves. She held her hand out in request for the pokeball, accepting it and slotting it into a machine with a disc inserted into it.

"This will give your Feraligatr the knowledge to apply to you an effect which allows you to withstand as much water pressure as it can, and breathe at that depth, whilst you're in contact with it! Granddad's really worried!" She shouted, handing him back Feraligatr's ultra-ball.

"How bad is it if my Pokemon need to know dive?" Ethan asked, pulling his belt up and wrapping his hoodie around it from the bottom to secure it in place.

"This may be the last day any of us see." Callie admitted, sprinting out to the deck as the waves became weaker, but something continued to tug on the ship.

Ethan ran out to the deck with Callie, wrapping his arms through the railings and his fingers around them. The first of the whirlpools around the Whirl Islands had come into sight. He caught a glimpse of both Gyarados and a large blue flat ray like Pokemon with a white underbelly gliding for meters before plunging back into the currents.

The whirlpool was a massive vortex, about ninety feet in diameter, and with currents raging in a clockwise direction faster than he could keep up with. He couldn't see the bottom of the vortex, and it went ridiculously deep. For a moment, he wondered what was below it. Then he realized that the ship was caught in its range of effect. It was being pulled closer with every passing second, and soon it would be sucked into the vortex.

He dashed back into the cabin and strapped his pack to his back. Extra weight would be helpful right now in keeping his feet planted firmly on the ground. He pointed Feraligatr's ultra-ball out the door and released the beast out, to lumber back into the cabin and follow him as he rewrapped his hoodie around his belt.

"IS THIS HOW BIG THEY NORMALLY ARE?" Ethan shouted to the captain, who was frantically scurrying about the control board, having left the struggle with the wheel to his much stronger Machamp.

"NO. THIS IS WHAT NINETY FEET? THESE THINGS SHOULDN'T GO BEYOND FORTY!" He hollered back as his fingers flew over the dashboard. Ethan caught a glimpse of the captain's distress message before a wave that had managed to stay upright this close to the whirlpool hit the ship and knocked him down into Feraligatr's arms.

"WESLEY! CALLIE! IT'S BEEN A PLEASURE TO SAIL THESE SEAS WITH YOU!" Allister shouted as Ethan felt himself rise into the air for a second, secured by his gators arms. He saw the ship's point of view tilt as they plunged into the whirlpool, not even sinking a foot before the currents snatched them up.

The tug on his body was too strong. Both he and Feraligatr were thrown against what was the roof, pack and all. He felt his stomach being pressed inwards slowly as the roof creaked and groaned under the pressure. HE could see the captain against the wall, which was now functioning as an upright floor, back to the wall as his Machamp gave up and pulled him back, holding him in place.

He dared to turn his head and look out the window he was flat against, and he regretted it immediately. His heart leapt to his throat as he saw how deep they were. The whirlpool was much narrower at whatever point they had reached, and the velocity had doubled, if nothing. Ethan could see the bottom from here. Despite its size, the whirlpool didn't reach the bottom of the ocean, not even close. He could see where the current closed, into a pinprick, making a perfect inverted cone.

He felt the roof buckle under him as light flooded into the room. The part of the roof he had been thrown against cracked free of the roof and was sent flying into the water, along with Ethan and his Pokemon.

"FERALIGATR! DIVE!" He shouted as high as he could managed, hoping the fact that Feraligatr was right next to him would allow it to hear him. He felt something envelope him a second later, an odd energy, as he was hit the ocean, pack strapped to his stomach, Feraligatr holding him from behind as the currents carried them away.

Ethan could feel his consciousness slipping away as the sheer velocity and the dizziness from all the turbulence on the boat and in the whirlpool took its toll, knocking him out just as they reached a calm depth in the ocean, by rising walls of rock.

* * *

Ethan woke up inside a cave, with a familiar scaly body holding him. He coughed, still somewhat dizzy as he looked around him. He was in a dark cave, how large it was, he had no idea, but it wasn't too big else there would be a draft in here, that wasn't coming from the entrance. The entrance was a rough rectangular shape about ten feet by ten feet in one wall, revealing a thoroughly soaked beach that extended for about ten feet outside. He reached for his belt, the feeling of his ultra-balls beneath his hoodie somewhat comforting. It also helped that his pack was lying out of the plastic sack near him, and seemed to be completely dry. The sack was still dripping wet, but that was expected. He released Typhlosion into the cave, along with the others, warmth and light flooding it as Typhlosion's back lit up with flames.

"Hi guys." He coughed, frowning as he looked at his sopping wet clothes. "Typhlosion could you help out a bit."

"Thanks." He shivered as Typhlosion moved up next to him, nuzzling him as his flames roared and crackled, setting to the task of drying his trainer up. "So… We were on a ship to Cianwood city down south of Olivine after we lost our battle to Jasmine. I was thinking we could take on Chuck and train in the caves there. If we're by the Whirlpools, I'd say we travelled a bit more than half the distance before we got trapped in a massive storm. From what I remember the ship got drawn into the whirlpool and we got thrown out by the force and into the ocean. Feraligatr saved not just me, but all of us."

Feraligatr's jaw extended into a toothy smile in the flickering light of Typhlosion's flames. Riolu was simply sitting in shock and Scyther and Specter were entirely silent.

"Regarding the fact that we're stranded Arceus knows where, we could be worse off. I mean we have my pack, with some food in it and other stuff we might need." Ethan shrugged, trying to remain positive in the face of the overwhelming despair that was threatening to send him into collapse.

"Let's wait out the storm first before we do anything else. Dry up and perhaps wall up the entrance to the cave a bit to stop the wind from coming in. Maybe we can use the boulders around here." Ethan suggested, gesturing to the boulders. Immediately, Feraligatr and Riolu moved to the boulders, each around four feet tall and two feet wide, roughly around the same volume, and hefted them over one by one to the entrance and blocked out the wind using them. A small amount of air was allowed to come in and out by the gaps between them. More than enough to keep the air in this cave fresh.

Then Ethan noticed the opening in the back. By the wall opposite the entrance he had just had blocked was a hole in the ground that looked too neat to have been natural. He wanted to explore it, to see where he was stranded. But honestly, he had no clue what he could do. It was very likely that he might have gotten hypothermia, and even if he hadn't, it was wiser to dry up first and make sure he was fit to do anything rather than risk catching it by exploring a probably drafty cave system in his current state.

"We're going to stay here then for now. I need to dry up, and then we'll see what to do based on the conditions outside." Ethan suggested, lying back against Typhlosion as he eyes the cavern. There was nothing in here he could use to keep a fire going, which meant Typhlosion would be their only source of heat and light.

He pulled off his hoodie and his shirt and pants, sitting against Typhlosion in his underclothes as he let the flames drain them of all their moisture. The heat radiating from Typhlosion was making him drowsy. He closed his eyes and leaned against Typhlosion's sleek coat, drifting away into what he hoped would be a peaceful sleep. Unfortunately for him, his rest was to be anything but peaceful.

* * *

 _Ethan was sitting in a cave, long and narrow, about twenty feet wide, with a high ceiling. The walls were cut into steep slopes outward by his sides, and there were uneven rises in the ground he was standing on. The platform was only ten feet long, though as wide as the room, but beyond it water extended as far as he could see. The room went on far beyond his range of vision. The water was calm, with barely any motion to disturb it, but it was deep right from the get go._

 _The water started to churn about fifty feet from him, and as he tried to run, he found himself rooted to the spot. A narrow column of spiraling water, a very narrow hurricane, rose out of the spot, a long and curving form barely discernable in the center. The column of water fell with a loud crash, revealing a massive white avian about twenty feet tall. It head, and beak were narrow and angled. It eyes had deep navy spikes sticking out from around them, and its chest was a pale watery blue. Its wings were less wing like, and straight, with feathers at the end arranged to give the illusion that they were thick straight fingers. Its back was highlighted with dozens of navy blue square fins in two rows down its spine, and its tail had three navy spikes at the end._

 _'The child of legend, the bearer of fate, the awakening of legends.' Ethan could feel a deep voice so imposing that even in his dream it occurred to him that the Pokemon was telepathic._

 _'Stand at the edge of my domain and see how your life teeters on the edge of a cliff. Soon the time will come for destiny to wreak havoc upon the world. The question is whether Johto will stand or fall. But my question is are you worthy? Of this title, of this path and of this position thrust upon you.' The voice was stone cold, not as if it was sneering, rather like an all imposing being to which his life mattered not, which was very likely. 'I charge you with this, lest this region perish. MAKE yourself worthy. Save yourself. Become one with the storm. Lest fire claim your life.'_

 _The avian roared as more hurricanes sprang to being in the narrow lake. Two to be exact. Looking at each gave Ethan a glimpse of some other reality. One shower flames wreathing him, of Johto in chaos, disorder, and razed to the ground. The other showed Johto once more in chaos and disorder, but this time there were people alive. It showed him the scraps and fights over food and other necessities._

 _'Choose, or find a way to forge your own path!' The avian roared, releasing two intertwined columns of spiraling wind at him, each going in the opposite direction. They hit him hard, and he wanted to scream as he felt them tear away at not just his physical form, but his very being, shredding his soul and tearing apart his identity._

* * *

Ethan woke up with a start, to find his clothes dry and his neck and hair drenched in sweat. Typhlosion's flames had dimmed, he was still asleep. Shivering, Ethan pulled on his clothes and sat there, trying to make something of the dream. Unlike any other dream, it remained burnt into his mind.

"Come on guys, let's go see what's around here." Ethan shook his various Pokemon awake, and then looked out of one of the gaps in the boulders. The storm raged on, as strong as it had been earlier.

Ethan walked to the hole and peered down it into the darkness, Typhlosion lighting up some of it. There were footholds carved into the wall it was leading down against.

"Typhlosion, you're coming back in, I don't want to scare anything down there. Scyther, by me. Specter, you're my eyes and ears." Ethan ordered, recalling the others and he climbed down the ladder in the wall slowly and carefully.

He brushed off his pants and stepped forward, his foot hitting a pebble. He wanted to swear as it bounced across the floor, echoing across the cavern. He saw a flame being lit on a stick being held by men in black uniforms. Their faces and about five feet around them were visible to him, but thankfully he was still shrouded in darkness.

"Must have just been another Zubat." One of them grumbled as another man stepped into the light. Ethan's heart skipped a beat as the man spoke. "Well then get a move on. Boss wants what he needs stat."

Ethan could see his tanned face and his purple hair, slicked back through the middle, and his scraggy purple goatee. He walked with a slight hunch in an odd way. He recognized this man as Petrel, a renowned master of disguise and criminal from a news report on him. Petrel was an executive in Team Rocket. Ethan was shaking as the men walked off in the other direction. First the dreams, now this. He was well and truly stuck between a rock and a hard place.


	9. The Whirl Islands

**Chapter 9: The Whirl Islands**

 **A/N: Lol sorry for taking so long again. In any case, thought I'd put this note out here, follow my twitter if you want (same username) and drop a message saying you've followed me as a fanfiction follower, and if enough people do that, I'll start posting updates, delays, teasers, polls, etc. on my twitter. Enjoy. Spironax**

* * *

Ethan let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding once Specter had confirmed that they were alone in the tunnel once more. Scrambling to get out, Ethan climbed back up to the cavern, releasing his Pokemon once more. He frowned as a sudden stroke of genius came to mind, one that could save him.

"Riolu, roll a rock over the entrance. One that can be removed." He instructed, willing himself to be calm, telling himself he could panic when he had gotten the hole covered.

He watched as the little cub sprinted over to the hole, then to one of the loose boulders in the room, getting behind it. Riolu lowered its body and heaved up under the rock with its palm and the side of its body, and lo and behold, it toppled the rock over and shifted it over to the hole, where it was dragged over to cover the top.

Ethan exhaled, releasing all of his remaining Pokemon and sat back against the wall, staring at the blank face of rock opposite him. This was the second time he had encountered Team Rocket's upper management.

Petrel. The man seemed like a joker with the lax air he put out, but he was anything from it. The slight hunch in his back was something Ethan figured was a product of disguising himself so often. Petrel was so high up in Team Rocket because he was a master of disguise and deception without an honest bone in his body.

The larger reality hit Ethan. Team Rocket was exploring the Islands between Cianwood and Olivine. Were they causing the overly large whirlpools outside the islands somehow? They were in a position of power, capable of stopping all trade from the south straits to the biggest port, and one of only two in Johto. This could literally spell disaster for the economy. Cianwood would perish without the trade from the mainland, and the region would be susceptible without Cianwood, their biggest producer of pharmaceuticals.

His Pokemon stayed by him throughout, the dull pounding of the torrential rain against the outside of the cave fading into the background as Ethan continued to think, and panic internally. One option which was definitely a bad one would be to venture out into the storm at this very moment. Another was to try and wait it out, which was equally bad, considering how low he was on supplies. Besides, what hope was there anyway? It wasn't as if ships ventured inside the whirlpools in normal times, forget during a storm like this. What ships would be venturing around the area in any case? His only hope would have been to take refuge in the deeper levels of the cave network, hopefully find another trainer or two down there, or at least a fresh water source. That was another problem for him. Unfortunately however, Team Rocket was exploring the caves, and it would be just as risky as trying to wait out the storm.

Ethan sat up and walked over to the entrance, looking through the gaps between the boulders piled up at the raging seas. It was night now, and lightning flashing in the distance gave him glimpses of the unrelenting fury of the sky. Ethan felt an appendage brushing off his legs. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Riolu brushing off his legs.

"What's up buddy?" He frowned, looking at Riolu's paws, which were covered in some form of white dust. The little wolf pointed at the spot where he had been sitting earlier instead of replying.

Ethan walked over to the spot, looking down at the white patch of dirt he had been sitting on. But it wasn't dirt. Suddenly he was back in New Bark Town, seven years old again, standing by the door as his mother brushed his legs off, scolding him for not looking to see where he was sitting. There was a large patch of white dirt by the back wall of the house, where he had been playing with some wild Pidgey.

" _Ethan! How many times have I told you not to sit on the ground without looking to see what's beneath you! Fortunately it wasn't something that would take work to get off your pants!" His mother sighed exasperatedly, brushing the dust off his pant legs._

Ethan smiled for a moment as he realized what it was: Something that had often sailed over the ears of kids in classes, tossed around the room when the teachers weren't there, and used until it finished when they were: Calcium Carbonate, commonly known as chalk.

"Riolu, can you break a piece of this out of the floor?" he asked, turning to stare at the patch.

' _What is this friend-trainer-Ethan?'_ Riolu asked, slamming a fist into the floor followed by its other fist, and then its palm. Brushing its paws off, it picked out a piece as long as Ethan's forefinger and a bit thicker than his thumb.

"It's chalk. It's something used for writing." Ethan answered, taking it and going over to a wall. Wincing slightly at the rough scratching sound he scrawled out an E on the wall, confirming that it was indeed chalk.

He reached into his pack and rifled around until he found his pocket knife, deciding what to do. He would work out his rations and use the walls as a canvas for his thoughts about what to do, waiting for a while. And while he waited, he could carve the chalk into a neater shape. He whittled the chalk down to a cylinder that was as close to perfect as he could make it, passing an hour, and then spent some more time designing an ambigram, a word written in such a text that it would be read the same way if it was upside down, of his first and last names individually. By the time he had engraved the ambigrams into the chalk, his first name in a ring at the top and his last at the bottom, he had whiled away four hours. He slipped the chalk into his pocket, smiling inwardly as a thought hit him.

' _At least I have a souvenir.'_ Ethan thought, dozing off to the flickering flames on Typhlosion's back.

* * *

Ethan woke up with a start, nearly jumping from where he was leaning against the wall. He cast his eye around the room, checking that the rocks were still covering the entrance, and the boulder was still on top of the tunnel. Riolu was asleep by his side, Scyther was curled up in a corner of the cave, Specter was floating about aimlessly, Typhlosion was awake and scorching the wall behind it, and Feraligatr was lurking in a corner.

He pulled a few biscuits out of his bag and scarfed them down, getting some food out for the three that needed it. He watched them eat, their shadows dancing against the wall.

"Come on guys. Let's explore. Same as before. I don't want to take any risks. Specter, you're my eyes, Scyther by my side. I'll recall you three for now." Ethan turned to his other three Pokemon, "Riolu could you just move the stone off?"

Once the stone was out of the way, he recalled his other Pokemon, and reached for the first foothold in the wall. Finding it, he began to climb slowly. Darkness engulfed the cavern below, leaving him unable to see for a little bit. He stood in place for a few minutes until his eyes had adjusted to the low light, letting him see a bit for a few feet around him. Specter was hovering about him, hands outstretched. Scyther stood by his side, remarkably silent. Ethan stepped forward warily, right hand outstretched so he wouldn't crash into anything.

He walked a little bit then stopped, squinting to see where he was. He was right by the edge of a large ledge, which fell four feet onto the main floor of the cavern, riddled with ponds, boulders and ridges according to the friendly ghost by his side. He placed a hand down against the ground and felt for the end of the ledge, waiting until Scyther had leapt down before beginning his descent. He scrambled down to the ground, and placed a foot down as far as he could reach. He cursed silently, not feeling anything beneath his foot. He tightened his grip on the floor and let himself further down, reaching the ground this time.

With a soft thud he let go and allowed his weight to drop onto the cavern floor. He looked around carefully, taking in the few rocks around him, separating paths in every direction, and then the wall behind him. Scyther stood by his side dutifully, peering into the darkness, and Specter was nowhere to be seen. He walked forward uncertainly, hands out at odd angles, going straight forward. His hands hit a large rock and he cringed; flattening his palms against it, he felt his way around the rock and into what seemed like a rough path. Small rocks about the height of his knees stood on either side of him, out of line, but roughly making a path for him to follow. He walked along it, following it to the other side of the cave.

A chill passed through his spine and he spun in place to see Specter rejoining them, waving its hands comically.

' _This cave is a maze.'_ Ethan felt the Haunter's presence in his mind and frowned momentarily as he processed the statement. That made wandering about randomly pointless. He would need a proper source of light if he was to navigate it to a safer spot, or find water, or anything else for that matter.

' _This isn't good.'_ Ethan mused, chin in his hand. ' _I could turn a corner and run into Team Rocket. I highly doubt they'd be able to leave in the storm. The problem with a source of light is that if someone's in the shadows they can see me and I can't see them. There's no way I could illuminate the whole cave unless we had enough timber for a large bonfire. I should probably continue like this for now.'_

Darkness emanated from the Haunter's form, an uncontrolled wave going inwards, sucking the warmth and light out of the area around it. Ethan made a mental note to look into that when he was back In the mainland and pulled out the chalk from earlier, marking the chalk with the time his watch read, the soft light of the luminescent needles not enough to ruin his sight in the dark, or attract attention. It would probably fade soon. Ethan pressed on, walking down the pathways as they presented themselves to him, wasting away more than an hour in eerie silence. He hadn't encountered any Pokemon apart from a few Zubat nesting by a stalactite. The cold damp atmosphere was disturbing, making him long for the dry cave where he had stayed. He knew his pack would be safe, partially because nothing could come in from the outside of the cave, and partially because he had hidden it amidst a pile of rocks.

An earsplitting screech shattered the silence, followed by a cacophony of identical screeching noises and the sound of fluttering wings as the Zubat in the cave woke up. Ethan ducked as one swooped low over his head, swearing when he noticed the Golbat trailing behind them. He broke into a sprint, Specter keeping up and watching the Golbat as they pursued him.

One fell to the ground, wings badly cut, followed by Scyther landing on its legs for only a second before pushing up again to attack another. Ethan focused on running as far as he could as Specter fired off a large orb of crackling shadowy energy, reducing the number of Golbat giving chase to two. He ducked around a corner and found himself at a dead end, in front of a small pond, the surface of which was glowing dimly. Scyther took down the last of the two Golbats as Ethan backed up.

Before he could stop himself, he took another step back and missed the ground by half a foot, falling into the pond with a large splash. He thrashed momentarily, opening his eyes when his hand hit the side of the pond. The pool had a few Staryu drifting about in it, light emanating from the jewels in the center of their bodies. A lone Goldeen swam through the center of the pond, indifferent to the human which had fallen into the water.

Ethan reached for the side of the ledge out of the water and wrapped a hand over it, pulling himself back up onto the ground. There was no sight of any of the Golbat, and Scyther was standing at the water's edge, obviously able to see him. He froze, right there and then as he heard voices talking nearby.

' _Specter, as soon as these people come around, if they're casting light around, hide in my shadow!'_ Ethan felt a pulse of recognition as he prayed silently, releasing off his Pokemon, Typhlosion staving off the flames which normally adorned its neck and back to hide in the darkness with the others as per the instructions he passed to them through the Haunter by his side. He pulled his soaked sweatshirt over his belt, wrapping it over the belt of empty pokeballs around his waist.

He took a deep breath, silently berating himself for deciding to go along with the idea, and kicked a small rock nearby, sending it clattering out of the way. He then proceeded to walk forward, towards the voices, footsteps echoing loudly as he slammed each foot into the ground repeatedly as though the cavern floor had wronged him. His range of vision increased as he saw the furthest edges of torchlight, shadows of two men dancing against the jagged rocks.

"Hello! Is someone here?" Ethan called out, striding into the torchlight slowly, looking carefully around the scene.

Four men in black uniforms with red R's emblazoned over their chests were sitting around a lit torch. Three were nearly identical in their dress, black uniforms, white shoes, white belts, black caps. The fourth was an oddity. He wasn't particularly tall, but his frame was thin, making him seem lanky or gangly, accentuated by the way he moved, swinging each limb freely. His skin was tanned, his hair and goatee died a horrible shade of light purple. A lopsided grin stretched across his face as he stared into the fire, juggling two pokeballs.

"What's a kid like you doing down here?" he asked, looking up from his antics and stowing the pokeballs away.

' _Moment of truth.'_ Ethan thought, doing his best to pretend he had no clue who he was standing in front of. "Our ship got wrecked and I washed ashore on an island in the storm. I wanted to get away from the noise so I went down the hole in the floor." He stuttered, pretending to be traumatized. His soaked clothes were probably the only reason he was attempting this.

"We can help you get out of here kid. Just give us your Pokemon." One of the men grinned, revealing teeth filed to a point.

"I don't have any." Ethan lied blatantly, hoping they wouldn't see the outline of the pokeballs pressed against the inside of his sweatshirt.

"I guess we could let him go then? You think so guys?" Petrel, the purple haired master of disguised chimed in with a cheery smile. His companions looked at him oddly and there were a few mumbled replies.

"Right after you give us your Pokemon kiddo. Don't bother lying. I can see the pokeballs against your sweatshirt." He flicked open a switchblade and held it close to the fire, the blade glinting dangerously. "Co-operate and we'll let you go."

"They're empty. I'm not lying." Ethan raised his hands and clasped them together behind his head in a gesture of surrender as it registered in a corner of his mind that the other Rockets had drilled into the wall a little bit, and lying by the foot was a fairly sized chunk of quartz.

Something clicked in the back of Ethan's head, and his thoughts were momentarily drowned out by a deep roaring voice in his head.

' _Prove your mettle and drive the desecrators from my realm.'_ It roared, leaving a dull pounding in Ethan's head as he got his bearings.

"Check them if you don't believe me!" Ethan huffed indignantly as Petrel stepped closer, tossing his switchblade casually from hand to hand.

"People tend to tell the truth when I take out the switchblade. Kid's unarmed. There's no need to take your Pokemon out folks, pathetic as they are." Petrel chuckled, striding over to him. "I think I'll just take anything you have on you that can be of any use and then truss you up and toss you in the drink."

Ethan stared over his shoulder as he approached at a pair of red eyes glimmering in the shadows behind the Rockets, who were drinking and laughing around the torch now, watching Petrel approach. Silently, he focused on one word, one thought, and stared directly into the gleaming red eyes beyond: Now.

Ethan leaped as far back as he could as his Pokemon sprang out of the shadows, aiming for the 'desecrators' as they had been dubbed by the voice in his head. Riolu leapt out from behind a rock and hit the first man hard with a spinning kick to the back of his head, knocking him out immediately. Specter floated into the second grunt, causing his body to spasm violently before he collapsed into a quivering mess. The third was taken out by Feraligatr, whom had simply hit the man with its powerful tail, slamming him into a wall and out of the plane of consciousness.

Typhlosion leapt out of the shadows, back flaring, between Petrel and Ethan. The burst of flames from its maw went over Petrel's head, the executive crouched low to the floor, a smirk still on his face. Ethan looked back and saw Scyther had left its hiding place to deal with what was obviously Petrel's Golbat, and from the looks of things, it wasn't going well.

"Raticate, Weezing, slaughter him!" Petrel shouted, releasing his remaining Pokemon from their containers at his belt. Ethan shuddered, not wanting to know just how powerful they were, and started to move back quickly.

"Work together guys! Specter, Scyther, take Golbat, Riolu, Typhlosion and Feraligatr to Weezing and Raticate!" Ethan retaliated as fast as he could, pulling out his own pocket knife from his bag quickly. It would be pointless if Petrel was as skilled with his switchblade as he seemed to be, but it was slightly comforting to feel the ridged wood of the handle against his palm whilst facing down the purple haired executive anyway.

He continued to step back cautiously as Petrel scrambled around to a safe distance from the fight. A grin stretched across his face as he noted that while in single combat his own Pokemon would have been crushed, their speed, along with their teamwork, was not only keeping Petrel's Pokemon at bay, but pushing them back slowly.

Scyther and Specter, using their mobility to the fullest, were releasing an onslaught of attacks on the Golbat which had been in hiding earlier, Scyther chasing it in the air with blades glowing while Haunter repeatedly tried to possess it or attack it, and often the other way around.

Feraligatr, Typhlosion and Riolu were in the midst of a tangle with Petrel's Weezing and his Raticate. Feraligatr had wrapped its frame around Weezing and was biting into it, slamming its tail into its side. The poison type struggled to remain airborne with the additional weight of the massive seven foot gator on its back, devoting all of its energy to shaking it off. Raticate was without a doubt, a far larger threat. Typhlosion was playing a game of cat and mouse with it, albeit armed with flames from its maw. It was chasing Raticate around the cavern, singeing it. The brown rodent was ducking behind rocks and into crevices barely in time to avoid the flames as it tried to avoid Riolu as well, guarding itself with a few well-placed hits every so often.

"Well I'll be damned! You're the kid who busted Proton's chops in Slowpoke well aren't you?" Petrel chuckled from his new position atop a rock twenty feet from Ethan.

"How'd you guess?" Ethan retorted, one eye on the fight as he stepped back ever so slowly, trying to avoid giving the impression that he was scared now that he had launched a full out attack on Petrel's Pokemon.

"Liquid like gold eyes, as Proton so eloquently put it, aren't that common kiddo." Petrel retorted, turning to examine the situation his Pokemon were in. It seemed that without their master to guide them and goad them, his Pokemon couldn't knock out a Psyduck. Well, that was with the exemption of Golbat, which had still managed to avoid all but a few hits. "And see, I'm willing to chance a guess that that Haunter up in the air playing tag with Golbat used to belong to Silver."

"Screw him." Ethan whispered to himself, growing tired of the useless banter. "Feraligatr, water gun! Follow it up with Iron Tail!"

Feraligatr, which had currently clamped its jaws down on Weezing's smaller half, looked towards him, dragging the floating poison type with it. A dull roaring sound exited its throat in a second, as the water Feraligatr was firing out at Weezing hit its side, bouncing back and building up in its mouth. A little water dribbled out of the gap between its jaws and Weezing's body. The water type wrapped its arms around the smaller head and pulled back before it clamped its jaws in tighter. Its teeth pierced Weezing's hide, clamping in for a second before Feraligatr reared and let go, firing off the water, with all its pent up pressure, at Weezing's injured side. The Poison type was propelled back into the air by the force of the blast, followed by a lunging Feraligatr. The water type leaped up to its height before it got to high, and raking its claws against the rough purple hide of its adversary, slammed a glowing silver tail into it.

"Touché. I guess the gloves should come off then shouldn't they?" Petrel sat down, crossing his legs, facing the remaining participants of the brawl, recalling the fallen Weezing before it hit the lake. "Raticate, Hyper Fang! Golbat, evasive maneuvers into offensive maneuvers!"

"Typhlosion, flame wheel! Take it down with you if it gets to you! Riolu, evade its attacks and counter with force palm!" Ethan shouted, directing his Pokemon as he saw them from his vantage point. "Scyther, forget about holding it at bay! Whirlwind followed by metal and shadow claws! Haunter, Shadow Ball ring!"

Raticate burst out into a sprint, fangs glowing and growing as it switched from the defensive to the offensive, charging Typhlosion head on, the fire type jumping over it by running up rocks in its curled up flaming wheel, the searing heat burning Raticate's hair every time they came to a close call. It reminded Ethan for a second of the little toy cars he had played with as a kid, all the jumps Typhlosion was making off rocks, followed by or chasing Raticate, and all the tight turns.

The rocks in the area where they were running were arranged like a compass. Where North was, Typhlosion could roll up the rock without jumping from inside the compass. Where south and east were, it could jump into the compass. And where west was, it could jump south. Typhlosion rolled off of a rock and went straight into the air, where it was followed by Raticate from the side. Riolu, completely forgotten by the normal type, flung itself into the air after Typhlosion and directly into the ensuing tangle of limbs.

Raticate would have bitten into Typhlosion's sides and injured it badly with the oversized fangs it was sporting as a result of hyper fang, and Typhlosion would have missed the strike it had been aiming for, having originally veered too far to the left. Riolu made a point of it to remedy the situation. IT leapt up and slammed into Raticate's jaw and side with glowing palms, pushing it forward two feet and directly into Typhlosion's path as it snarled in pain from the possibly broken jaw. The fire type hit it dead center, flames turning it fur black immediately, and going deeper than that. The force of the impact, combined with the fatigue from the flames had Raticate weak. It hurtled forward as Typhlosion rolled to a stop on the ground, hitting the back wall of the cavern. Ethan didn't need to give orders this time around as a wall of fire slammed into Raticate, a blue blur hitting it hard every time the flames relented.

Ethan shifted his attention to the other fight taking place in the room, where Scyther, Haunter and Feraligatr were taking on Golbat. Scyther had whipped up a whirlwind, turned into a weak hurricane by the streams of water Feraligatr was spewing into it. A rotating ring of three shadow balls hurtled through the hurricane, drawing a screech from the inside as Scyther circled, preparing its next attacks, one blade glowing silver, the other emitting ghostly purple light.

The hurricane was dropped and Scyther charged in headfirst, landing both hits on Golbat's body before it flew off, and up to the cavern roof where it regained its bearings before it attacked. It dove straight for Scyther, the bug type waiting for it with glowing blades. The poison type's fangs were glowing, and it was picking up speed. Scyther raised its blades at the last minute, the one forward missing entirely Golbat soared over Scyther's left shoulder, the other blade grazing it. It latched onto Feraligatr's back for a moment, fangs still glowing as Feraligatr's snout contorted as it reached for its back, and after a few seconds, managed to grab a hold of Golbat and wrench it off its back. The avian regained its balanced as it was tossed into the air, right before a blade cut across its body, drawing purple blood from its body.

Typhlosion and Riolu scampered over to join the fight, making it five against one.

"Good job. But tell me, how much do you know about military tactics?" Petrel asked, grinning.

Ethan stayed mute, instead focusing on the stalemate ahead, with Golbat fluttering out of reach every time an attack approached.

"First comes the cannon fodder. To find out what the other side has. Then a mild force to drain it a bit. Then the big guns swoop in for the kill." Ethan's face lost its color as Petrel counted off his fingers, before pointing the remaining one at Golbat.

"Vacuum Wave!" He shouted, causing Ethan to cringe. Before he could respond, Golbat screeched, and with glowing wings, created an outward wave of air, slamming into each of his Pokemon and giving them numerous tiny cuts, before the resulting vacuum drew them back in and they slammed into the rocks in the area.

Ethan cursed silently, recalling Riolu, the little fighting type spent from the earlier fighting against Raticate. If he had to guess, Ethan would say he still needed every day of training in Cianwood before he could even be considered for his rematch against Jasmine.

"Golbat, Hyper voice!" Petrel called out, clamping his hands over his ears.

"COVER YOUR EARS!" Ethan shouted, clamping his own hands over his ears. Through the fingers covering his ears, he heard an earsplitting shout, higher pitched than anything he had ever heard. Typhlosion and Feraligatr had managed to cover their ears properly, and avoided them worst of the attack. They were blown back along with Scyther, whom hadn't managed to cover its ears and was dazed. Specter on the other hand, outright blew up.

The gaseous form of the ghost seamed to tear apart and evaporate, the gasses drifting off to a corner where it slowly reformed over the course of a minute.

"Feraligatr, assault it with water gun! Typhlosion, flamethrower! Scyther, trap it!" Ethan shouted desperately, backpedaling quickly now.

Petrel shouted something inaudible to Ethan and the Pokemon sprang into action, blasts of water and streams of fire going up in the air after Golbat, right along with waves of air and small whirlwinds, barely holding it back. Ethan felt his heart sink to the floor and his throat tighten as Golbat's form began to glow slowly, until it was a blinding white, warding off attacks without doing anything. Ethan watched with trepidation as the glowing form changed slowly, growing larger until it looked about as large as him, was sleeker, and had four wings instead of two. The glow faded as Specter, now fully reformed, approached it in the shadows from behind.

Left hovering in Golbat's place was a large violet bat with a downturned mouth, four wings with blue insides, and yellow eyes. Haunter made a gesture towards the exit path behind Ethan, back up to his cavern and to the evolved Pokemon. Ethan felt its presence in his head, and slowly understanding what it was saying, figured it out, backpedaling quickly as Petrel admired his new Pokemon. He managed to make it as far as the ledge, and was clambering up it when Petrel noticed it. That was when the Haunter struck. Catching the large avian unawares, it drifted right into it, possessing it and causing its body to writhe and flutter about randomly as it fought for control of its body. Ethan recalled his other Pokemon from where he was and broke out into an all-out sprint as Petrel's Pokemon threw Haunter off. He was twenty feet from the footholds leading up to his cave now, and Petrel was shouting orders to his Pokemon.

"Crobat! Strike him down!" Petrel shouted to it, and flying closer quickly, it released a visibly white wave of air in his direction, which Ethan had no doubt was razor sharp and could outpace him ten to one. Specter appeared behind him and fired off an attack Ethan had never seen before as he reached for the first foothold, a wave of wind carrying purple haze, battling with the white wind in the center.

Ethan clambered up the first few footholds, transfixed as a familiar glow overtook the Haunter's body, and it grew. The ghost's form expanded into a roundish body with a spiked head and four proper limbs, albeit short ones. The glow died down revealing a deep, purple body, almost black, which had malevolent red eyes, and a row of sharp wide teeth revealed by the Gengar's grin.

The surge of energy from evolution caused the two attacks to blow up in the center and when the dust cleared, a wall of rocks had collapsed, Specter was in his pokeball, and Ethan was up in the cave with his other Pokemon out. He peered out the entrance to see that the storm had lessened, even if it was still going strong. He had a chance to make it to a different, and more importantly, safer island.

"Guys! Pile everything up on the hole! Even the stuff covering the door! We're going to brave the storm." Ethan said grimly, confused about what had made him take on the Rockets so boldly.

* * *

Ethan hefted his pack a little higher on his shoulder and stepped out the door the second his Pokemon were done piling up every loose rock in the room over the entrance to the deeper tunnels, recalling all but Feraligatr in the storm.

"Feraligatr, use dive in case we have to go under water!" He instructed over the deafening wind.

The water type's body began glowing blue for a second, as did Ethan's when he climbed over onto Feraligatr's back between spikes and made contact with the its skin.

"Okay! Let's try and get to that island over there! I can see a cave!" Ethan shouted over the din.

Feraligatr pushed out of the shallow water and into the buffeting currents inside the ring of whirlpools, bucking in the waves. Ethan hung onto the spikes protruding from Feraligatr's back for dear life as he was carried across the turbulent seas by his companion, the island some three hundred meters away. The sea was churning, as though mad at him for attempting to traverse it. Spray hit Ethan in the face, and he got a mouthful of foam, glad he had wrapped his pack in water retardant materials.

Each meter they traveled seemed as though it would be their last with the way the storms were returning. The sky was a dark, foreboding grey, and rather than seeming like the eleven AM sky his watch said it should be, it seemed like it was seven at night. Ethan shifted his pack, securing it once more as they bobbed up and down, ever so slowly making their way down to the island opposite them. The waves they were in had no particular direction in some places, simply being drawn to the closest whirlpool, and where the whirlpool's effects were nullified by distance, lapping over one another from all sides as a result of the backlash from the edges of the vortexes.

Ethan's eyes scanned the ocean as far as he could see for any vessel, but the sea was empty, void of anything that could be seen as useful.

' _If I make it back to the mainland in time to meet Steven without having to contact him, which obviously, I can't do, I'll drop on my knees and pray to Lugia. It's the sea after all.'_ Ethan, like most of Johto, had been raised listening to stories of Johto's history, both confirmed and speculated, and the legends and myths of the land. History was clear that in the past, more than a thousand years ago, Johtans prayed to two insanely powerful avians, only after Arceus itself: Lugia and Ho-oh, the masters of the land and seas of Johto, and in some speculations, all of Indigo.

It was fact that there were two towers built in Ecruteak City, one of which he had visited, in remembrance of the two birds, as roosts and as holy places. The Brass Tower and the Tin Tower. The Brass tower stood erect in the forests by the edge of Ecruteak to the day, housing a monastery. The Tin tower was struck by lightning around nine hundred years ago, which led to a massive fire which in turn burnt the tower to as low as the first floor. Then the rain from the initial storm which produced the lightning put the fires out.

From here legends began. The stories went that three Pokemon died in the building, and Ho-oh, feeling deep sorrow, for both Lugia and the three Pokemon, resurrected them with greater power than any other Pokemon in Johto but themselves, as Raikou, the lightning that struck the tower, Entei, the flames that consumed it, and Suicune, the rain which doused the fires. Unlike Ho-oh and Lugia, these three had bene sighted before, close to the time that they had been born in the ruins of the tower, but like Lugia and Ho-oh were creatures which had faded into history as myths and were revered, but should one be asked whether they actually believed could exist, one might start to doubt, or hesitate: All mighty entities which were the subject of prayers and inspired hope, immortalize in verse and song, but unacceptable as real.

Lugia had supposedly flown off to its original roost after the Tower burnt down, followed by Ho-oh, and the brotherhoods which guarded their relics, their beliefs, and their towers disbanded. Ethan wasn't a very religious person in the first place, but the recent occurrence had instilled in him a fear of greater powers. There had one been murals of Lugia and Ho-oh, as well as the three guardians of Johto, in both Towers. Rumor had it some of the ones in the upper levels of the Brass Tower were still there, and in good condition. Ethan had never had the fortune to be admitted into the sanctuary that was the Brass Tower, and was likely never to, which resulted in his imagination creating images as to what the birds might look like. Recently, the dreams he had had had come back to haunt him, and every time he thought about the myths of the avians, he thought of the massive avian from his dream. The one which rose from the water.

Ethan shook his head, snapping back to reality and realized they were only ten meters from the beach of the second island. His watch showed that it had been all of fifteen minutes by the time they hit land. Ethan recalled Feraligatr, ducking into the cave for shelter. It was small, low and wide. He released Typhlosion and Specter into the cavern, examining his newly evolved Ghost.

Specter had evolved for the last time, into a Gengar, the final form of the Gastly line. Gengars' bodies were a very dark purple, nearly black, the color Specter had become later as a Haunter when the radius of the gas around its body had shrunk and darkened its body. Its body was squat and round, and it had short stubby limbs, two legs, and two arms with spiky fingers, and it had two large spiked ears, and a permanent grin revealing serrated teeth. Its eyes were tinged red where there had been white, and its irises were black as night.

"Congratulations buddy." Ethan remarked as Specter floated higher, cackling and soaring about the small cavern, melting in and out of the shadows cast by Typhlosion's flames.

Specter frowned for a moment and stared at him, clearly trying to figure something out. Ethan took a second and pulled out his phone, scanning Specter fully now that he had the chance to read from Brendan's database what data there was on the mischievous spirit.

 _Gengar, known as the shadow Pokemon. They're ridiculously mischievous, and malevolent towards their adversaries. They grow to be about five feet at most. Their move pools expand vastly, and their speed can go through the roof, making them versatile powerhouses. The thing about Gengar is that since they have defined shapes, it's easier for them to reform their bodies after taking hard hits. The one catch about the great boost in power is that as they coalesce into a corporeal form, they lose the ability to communicate telepathically._

"Stop trying Specter. Databases say you can't communicate telepathically anymore, but there is a lot more you can do, and once we're out of here, I plan to push you as far as you can go." Ethan grinned, giving the ghost a once over. It seemed to be about a few inches short of what the databases said it could be, but that was nothing. It would grow as it got older.

Ethan turned around and examined the cave in the firelight once more. There was nothing on the walls, or the roof, or the floor for that matter. They were plain, hard packed dirt. The only oddity was a hole in the far left corner, big enough for him to climb down. He walked over to it, taking his phone out and using the flashlight function in it. He found himself staring at a wall, with the same style of footholds carved into it as the previous cavern had had. Swallowing nervously, Ethan called his Pokemon over and started climbing down, Specter floating ahead of him to keep an eye out ahead. Ethan climbed down slowly and silently, shutting his phone. He recalled Typhlosion and immediately released it onto the ground opposite him, lighting the cavern up with its flames. His stomach felt like it was knotting up as he realized it was the same cavern. The islands were connected from underneath. He was higher than any other place in the islands, on a platform with a steep slippery side that was impossible to climb, maybe ten meters away from the spot where the Rockets had been camping, now empty.

Ethan stepped forward nervously, walking around. He found himself entering another labyrinthine construct on the same level. He followed it tentatively, the crystals embedded in the walls sparkling in the firelight. Specter was floating ahead of him and Typhlosion was behind him. He ran a hand along the wall, which was about the same height as his head. He followed the left wall for fifteen minutes, through twists and turns, ignoring all the other paths at crossroads and following the path wherever the left wall took him. It was only when the walls changed did he stop what he was doing and look where he was going. Instead of jagged rocks with crystals embedded in them, he found himself facing a four way crossroads. He could go back, or forward, or to his northeast, or his west. The other three paths entered proper tunnel like divisions, with smooth stone walls all the way up to the roof fifteen feet overhead.

Ethan stared down the paths one by one, trying to decide which way to go. Each path had an equal probability that the Rockets, should they still be there, would be down the path. Swallowing nervously, fists balled up, Ethan took the path that led to his Northeast, following it all the way to the end.

It took him straight to another open platform high up, level with the one he had originally emerged upon, as he realized with a start that the passage had been sloped. He looked about the platform nervously, paying heed to where the flat rock ended and the treacherous fall to the lower level began.

It took all of ten minutes, but he managed to find another exit, a small hole he climbed through to another set of footholds. He descended, recalling Typhlosion and releasing it at the new ground level once more. This level seemed to have been shaped a bit, or rather smoothed out by men. There was a dull light emitting from somewhere, in the room, which was divided by not more than a few jagged rock walls. Ethan found his way down to the end, past another small lake, from where the light was coming, and to another ladder hole. This time however, there was an actual ladder in the hole, and Ethan could see torchlight down the hole.

He climbed down it, releasing Typhlosion before he turned around. He was standing on a ledge the size of a basketball court, with a waterfall to his right, on the long side, curved and falling into a lake. Behind him and opposite him, on the short ends were walls going thirty feet up, with multiple doorways in them and staircases carved into them, leading to doorways higher up the walls. To his left, on the other long side was a straight drop down, some one hundred feet or more Ethan estimated, to a large rectangular lake. There was a sloping path leading down directly to his west. Ethan looked around as the people in the cavern stopped what they were doing. The room was a battlefield, and Ethan noticed someone scramble up the ladder behind him and fit a carved stone into the hole, blocking and concealing the entrance. The room was occupied by monks wearing robes of deep blue and bright blue, all of them with their heads entirely shaved. The men on either side of the room, which had the lines of a battlefield drawn on it, were poised calmly, moving in Synchronous with the Pokemon on the battlefield, a Medicham and a Victreebel.

"Who are you child, and how did you find your way here." A monk wearing the same robes as the other, but with a white fold over his shoulder stepped forward, the entire room standing straight at his presence.

"My name is Ethan Photon sir. The ship I was traveling to Cianwood City in got caught in an overly large Whirlpool and I was cast out to sea by the force. My Feraligatr managed to get me to the islands." Ethan raised his hands in a gesture of peace after recalling his Pokemon, drawing looks from the twelve men whom had gathered in the room.

"Let it be said that the brotherhood will turn away no man in need. Brother Edison, contact Cianwood City." The man nodded, stroking the white stubble beard on his face. "Follow me child, and tell me the entirety of your story."

Nodding numbly as he felt fatigue overtaking him, Ethan followed him through doorway at their level to a series of small rooms. The man led him to a small room carved into the stone, like all the others, with simple bedding on the ground and a table.

"Rest. Food will be brought to you and your Pokemon healed. I will return either when your Pokemon have been healed, or Cianwood's coast guard responds." The man said, sitting down by his side as another brother approached.

"Brother, see to food and treatment of our guest's Pokemon please." The man instructed, handing him the pokeball belt which Ethan removed from under his hoodie. "Now then. My name is Father Leonardo. Please, if you are not too tired, tell me your story."

"I have one question before I begin Father." Ethan responded, lying back against the wall on the bedding. "Where am I?"

"My child," Leonardo chuckled, "You are in the deeper levels of the Whirl Islands."

* * *

Ethan walked to the bench by the side of the battlefield with Father Leonardo, sitting down and watching the battle which was ensuing. There was a Helicopter to arrive from Cianwood soon. He had rested, eaten, and his Pokemon had been treated. His clothes had been dried, and he had been outfitted in a plain blue shirt and loose blue pants, the clothes the brother who brought them to him told him were used when a member of the brotherhood had to travel. He had just finished telling the father his tale.

"That sir, is how I ended up here." Ethan finished, taking a deep breath and watching the battle.

"That is quite a tale my son, and I believe you tell the truth. For what reason have you to lie." Leonardo replied, sitting down next to Ethan. He was a thin, tall man who walked with elegance, his eyes blue to match his robes, and his face angled and sharp. Unlike the others, he had a very thin layer of hair, white hair.

"My father once told me to always tell the truth, not simply because it is ethical, but because it's easier by relieving yourself of the pressure of having to remember you lies." Ethan replied, shifting in his seat as he watched an Arbok lash out at a Skarmory. "Father Leonardo, who are all of you? What is this place?"

"What do you know of the old days when the people of Johto worshipped and revered the legendary birds, Lugia and Ho-oh?" The old man retorted, gazing off into the distance.

"I understand that there was a brotherhood guarding their secrets, their myths, and their beliefs, and that people prayed to them in the Brass and Tin Towers, and the most devout followers went on to join the brotherhoods before the Tower burnt down and it was disbanded." Ethan replied cautiously.

"There are two places I must correct you child. To begin with, there were two brotherhoods, which worked in symbiosis. Secondly, the brotherhoods were never disbanded. We simply retreated from the world." Leonardo let the sentence hang in the air.

"Wait. We?" Ethan's head twisted ninety degrees to face the man.

"My child, you stand amongst the brotherhood of Faith." Leonardo replied simply. "The whirl islands were in myth and speculation the original roost of Lugia before the towers were built. We scour the caverns regularly, and while we have not found any evidence that Lugia still inhabits these islands, we carry on with our beliefs and our practices."

Ethan took a moment to process the statement before he stood from the bench and sank to his knees in silent prayer, head bowed down. Leonardo watched him with interest, giving him a questioning look when he stood.

Seeing the man's look, Ethan explained. "I promised to myself that should I be delivered from my predicament, I would fall to my knees and pray to Lugia. What better place to do so than Lugia's old roost."

"Well reasoned."

"Then are you a monastery? What do you practice, what are your beliefs?" Ethan asked rising once more.

"Common misconception. We did not pray directly to the two avians. We revered them and strove for their Symbiosis. We guard the secrets of the old days, and ensure that our message, the walk to a perfect union between man and Pokemon, does not die. These men shave their heads for the simple reason that even a little bit of water in hair in these conditions can lead to illness very easily." Leonardo watched Ethan nod and followed his eyes to the battleground, where the man with the Arbok had defeated the man with the Skarmory. "I take it battling is an interest of yours?"

Ethan nodded in reply, reaching instinctively for his belt.

"Would you like to challenge one of our own? I can very easily choose someone to match you, considering I examined your Pokemon whilst they were being healed." Ethan stared at the man, taking his offer into consideration before nodding silently.

"Brother Lorenzo! Our young guest's blood runs hot! Perhaps you would consent to a friendly spar with this young man?" A man in his thirties with black stubble walked down to the battlefield nodding and standing in position.

Ethan strode over to the other side of the battlefield slowly and reached for Scyther's pokeball. Typhlosion was ready and raring to go, but he felt that Scyther deserved the battle. He hadn't had a good challenge (an organized one) in a while. Ethan released the bug type onto the field and stared as the other man released a small purple Pokemon that had blue wings, a claws at the ends of them, two small wings and a massive stinger on the end of its tail. Ethan pulled his phone out and scanned it, reading the data that came back.

 _Gligar. Ground and flying type. The fly scorpion Pokemon. Really fast, and love to charge at opponents. If someone trains one to listen rather than attack impulsively, they can be annoying, but their evolutions Gliscor are far more annoying._

Ethan shifted a little bit as he slipped his phone back, Lorenzo standing perfectly straight opposite him.

"Scyther, engage with shadow claw and metal claw!" Ethan instructed as his companion leapt into action, covering the distance between Gligar and itself in two seconds, blades raised as it jumped to attack.

Lorenzo stepped to the side and shifted his hand, and in a single swift motion, Gligar sidestepped the attack and stung Scyther in the back.

"Scyther! Fury Cutter!" Ethan called out, hoping Scyther could find a way to track the Gligar. Once again, Gligar simply avoided the attack and struck back hard. The game went on for a few more hits, wearing Scyther down a little bit.

Ethan stared at the predicament. Gligar would be inclined to charge if he didn't act soon, but he needed a way to actually hurt it before he could move. He watched Lorenzo carefully, taking in his lax posture, mimicking his Pokemon. That was when Leonardo's words came back to him. _'… a perfect union between man and Pokemon….'._ Ethan's eyes lit up as he realized that Lorenzo was in sync with his Pokemon, examining the battlefield in real-time and directing it to move as it needed to, predicting Scyther's movements. That was what he needed to do then.

"Scyther! Trust me and use Fury cutter! Read the way Gligar's moving!" Ethan called out, watching as Scyther took note of the silent message he was trying to send, following his pattern and charging. As Gligar stepped back to the left to avoid the onslaught, Scyther stepped to the right, out of range of the stinger, barely, and then lunged forward when Gligar lurched forward, surprised, and hit it hard.

"Wonderful!" Leonardo clapped loudly, smiling as he strode towards the field. "I was wondering how long it would take you to identify and grasp the principle which makes us so powerful. I hope you implement this yourself, and that one day I find you joining this brotherhood as a believer."

"Father, when I can, and I have not already decided to travel and work with a new mentor, then I may find myself returning, to master this discipline. I want to thank you for introducing me to it." Ethan's smile lit up his eyes as a man walked up to Leonardo.

"Your transport is here. I hope to see you again Ethan Photon. I bid you farewell, and good luck on your journey."


	10. You Win Some, You Lose Some

**Chapter 10: You win some, you lose some**

 **A/N: So I don't know how long it'll be before I upload the next chapter. Stuff's about to happen, which is for sure going to throw my previous schedule into disarray. Then there's school opening soon. Anyway, enjoy, I'll try not to be long. Spironax**

* * *

Ethan gazed out the window of the helicopter at the white sands of the beach town known as Cianwood City, his destination before the ship he had been traveling in had been drawn into the whirlpool. He shuddered as he felt a cold breeze pass over him, reminding him of the draft cavern under the ocean floor.

Father Leonardo had called Cianwood's coast guard to come and take him to land, considering their own had been in Olivine at the moment, doing the monthly groceries. The deafening whirring of the chopper's blades drowned out everything but the roar of the wind in the open doored aircraft. The pilot glanced back at him, shouting something inaudible and gesturing out to land as the vehicle tilted off to the left, veering towards a large empty stretch of land atop one of the cliffs surrounding the town from two of its four sides. Ethan could see a climbing path worn into the near vertical face of the cliff, facilitating access to what he could see was a helipad, with the lines painted on, and a tourist attraction in the form of paragliders sailing down from the cliff and eventually making their way to two recipients at the bottom, waiting to walk them up the cliff in bundles.

"We're landing up here! We'd rather not blow sand all over the city!" The pilot called out, this time audible to Ethan, as the helicopter veered dangerously to the right again, shifting until it was right in position a wide area on the cliff with a massive letter H painted onto it inside an equally massive ring.

Ethan's stomach lurched as the nose of the craft dipped, giving him a spectacular view down the center of the helicopter and through the windshield. Ethan watched as the pilot expertly guided the plain lower and lower, until the front of the base came into contact with the cliff-top, and slowly he lowered the rest down and let the blades run to a stop.

"Welcome to Cianwood City." The man chuckled well naturedly as he noticed how unsettled Ethan seemed to be.

"What's the fastest way to get down? I think I've got vertigo." Ethan asked, stumbling slightly as he stepped out of the chopper, pack strapped to his back.

"It's not vertigo unless you had it before you got on board kid. Your body's just unsettled because of the changes in pressure. After all, it's an open door aircraft and unless you've ever been in one before it's unsettling. Sit down for a minute, swallow this if you have some trouble. Then it's up to you. You can go the long way, taking the footpath, or the short way, taking a glider down to the beach." The pilot grinned, tossing him a small orange tablet.

Ethan thanked him quietly, chewing the tablet immediately. He sat down some ways off from the chopper as the pilot wandered off. It took a few minutes, but the tablet and the stability took him back to one hundred percent quickly, and he was ready to make his way down. He started walking in the general direction of the path and the gliders, checking his phone in the meantime. He had lost a day and a half. It was now the morning of the thirteenth, which meant he had to be back in Olivine the next day.

A feeling of dread settled into him as he opened his phone, three missed calls and a text showing up once it picked up the signal from the nearby tower. All of them were from Steven. Ethan frowned, reading off the messages quickly.

 _Ethan, stuff's come up. While I'm not undoing my decision to mentor you, we may have to push it back a few days. We'll depart for the wilderness on the eighteenth now. Call me when you get this._

Ethan's heart soared and he smiled, elated that he hadn't missed what was possibly the chance of a century. He continued on in the direction of the gliders, noting a bunch of trainers, with three Pokemon out by their sides, bickering amongst themselves. He dialed Steven's number, pressing the phone to his ear and waited as it rang. Three rings later, he was on the line.

"Hello, Ethan?" he asked, his voice slightly muffled. "Where were you?"

"I got stranded on the whirl islands. There's a sort of religious group or something that lives down in the islands with a line to the mainland. They called the Cianwood Coastguard. I just reached Cianwood." Ethan responded, closing in on the trainers and their Pokemon.

"I'd ask for a full detailed account right now, but like I said in my message, stuff's cropped up so I'm a bit busy right now. I'll see you in Olivine by the eighteenth." Steven replied, his voice betraying his concern, and his weariness.

Ethan snapped the phone shut, now twenty feet from the gliders, and the trainers standing ten feet off of them. The man standing by the gliders was waving about a sign board and shouting to the tourists milling around the top of the cliff. Ethan walked closer and read the sign, wincing at how the glider owner's accent was so pronounced it was obvious that it was fake.

"Trainer competition! Five dollars for entry! Winner gets a three free rides!" he was shouting, waving a colorful cardboard sign around like a child. Admittedly he had attracted about five trainers though.

Ethan pondered over it for a moment before taking it as a chance to get back on his feet after the Whirl Islands and walked up. He noticed a small building ten meters off, realizing that it wasn't just a seasonal tourist attraction, but a proper agency, which had a matching building down where the recipients for the gliders were waiting, with four boats docked at the water's edge.

"Excuse me sir, I'd like to enter the contest." Ethan walked up to the man, who was dark skinned, with a curly black hair and riveting blue eyes.

"Trainer Identification and five dollars please." He replied, accepting the money with a smile and checking his trainer tag quickly.

"Okay folks! The trainers are in and we have six people! Battle time! Open betting on it like a normal battle! Maurice bring me the ballot. Three one on one battles! The remaining trainers do three battles, point system! Draw straws please!" the man chuckled heartily as a young assistant, Maurice presumably, brought them six trainers whom had gathered around, including Ethan, a hat with six straws in it.

Ethan plucked one out first, scanning it to find the number three stuck to it. A moment later the others had drawn their straws.

"First round, Ethan Photon up against the local hotshot, Sergio Valdez. Esperanza Micelle and Jennifer Terry. Alice Hart against Alicia Rivers. Please find battle grounds and begin!" Maurice called out, drawing the attention of a few tourists, who flocked the group.

Ethan walked up to the local boy who had the other straw with the number three on it and followed him to a point about thirty feet from the hut, hands on his belt.

"Betting on this or not?" The boy called out, his voice surprisingly high pitched.

"Twenty dollars." Ethan shrugged, hands flickering over his belt.

"You're on. Release on three…. 3!" Sergio shouted, tossing a blue ball decorated with black netting into the air. A small blue Pokemon with a snout, a white scaled chest and a tail curled up to its chest formed in the air, hopping about weakly on its tail: a Horsea. "Maybe I should have thought that through more."

"Probably", Ethan agreed as Specter formed in the air from the pokeball he had tossed up. "Specter, shadow ball!"

The Gengar frowned for a moment, unsure in its new body before the grin returned, wider than ever, and it charged up two inky black spheres in each hand, about the size of a melon each. Faster than Ethan could blink, Specter had lobbed the first at Horsea, which was avoided, but put the little water type directly in the path of the remaining three attacks, solid hits which blew it off its tail and ten feet back.

"Horsea! Water gun!" His adversary retaliated and the little blue aquatic creature obediently fired off a jet stream of water at Specter.

"Dodge it and retaliate with Sucker punch! Even if you can't drain it, you can hit it!" He called out, grinning as the ghost flew a few inches to the right and avoided the onslaught, charging immediately with a glowing purple fist. Horsea, having failed to end the water gun in time, found itself unable to move as the Gengar's fist slammed into it hard with its dark energy, a dozen or so wisps of black vapor flowing down into the specter from the point of contact.

"Finish this with ominous wind!"

Specter gladly obliged, rising high and raising its arms. Purple streams of air formed and flew directly at the water type, knocking it out.

"I concede. Here's your twenty bucks. Good luck with getting the glider from that Houndoom over there." Ethan followed the tanned boy's gaze over to another spot where a squat girl with a square jaw and a Houndoom stood victorious. He accepted the notes pressed into his hand and walked over to the gliders, recalling Specter quickly.

"Good good. Three peoples left." The glider man laughed in his false accent, "Three people, we do one big battle. All three at once! No teaming up voluntarily!" He laughed heartily, directing them to a large open space where a small group of tourists had gathered to watch the battle. Ethan realized that that was the benefit of his loud, false accent: It attracted the attention of tourists.

He walked over to the ground behind his opposition, the girl with her Houndoom, and a thin willowy girl with brown hair cut just below her ears. They walked about thirty feet from the crowd before the glider man stopped. His Hawaiian shirt was open and he was wearing a bright orange vest under it with the words "Cianwood Gliding" printed on it in lurid pink.

"My name is Escalade! Thank you for taking part in this tournament? Any bets before we start?" Escalade chortled, fixing his sunhat.

"A hundred dollars from me to whoever manages to take down Houndoom." The squat girl grunted, obviously confident in her ability.

"Fifty to whoever wins." The brown haired girl shrugged, everybody looking towards Ethan.

"Fifty to the winner." Ethan shrugged, mimicking the actions of the brown haired girl and reaching for his belt to start the battle off. His hands lingered indecisively over Riolu's pokeball for a minute before he plucked the sphere off of his belt and released Riolu onto the cliff.

"Serious battle here buddy. It's all for fun and stuff, but let's do our best to win." Ethan suggested, catching a Gligar drifting around in the sky overhead out of the corner of his eye.

The brown haired girl reached for her own pokeball as well, pulling out a dark grey pokeball with two blue bumps on it. She chucked it into the air, straight up, releasing a beam of white light down to the ground, which formed into a large, heavy quadruped beast with stone plate armor and a sharp horn. Ethan pulled his phone out for a second, scanning the creature quickly.

 _Rhyhorn, the spike Pokemon, its ground and rock typed. On average, one that's three feet tall weighs at least twice as much as you. Not very smart….. Even in the most remote sense of the word._

Ethan grinned internally at his luck. Despite its size, Riolu held the type advantage over the other two, and Rhyhorn had a brain the size of a walnut. Houndoom were otherwise known for their blind aggression. That would be enough to even the scales if not tip them in his favor.

"You may start now!" Escalade shouted, hurrying back rapidly and pulling a velvet rope from nowhere to keep the tourists at a safe distance.

"Riolu! Use your size to avoid them! Force palm and aura spheres!" Ethan shouted, before either of the girls could instruct their own Pokemon, sending Riolu hurtling towards Rhyhorn.

"Rhyhorn! Crush it!" The brown haired one responded, regaining her wits.

The bulky rock typed roared, building up its stride to an all-out charge towards Riolu. The little fighting type ducked to the floor at the last moment, sliding under it. Ethan lost track of his Pokemon for a second then with a loud smack Riolu's force palm hit Rhyhorn's vulnerable belly and sent the three hundred pound rock type three feet into the air. Ethan marveled at how Riolu was already on its feet on the other side.

It ducked under a stream of fire and charged under it, invisible to Houndoom as it approached. The fire type leaped away at the last second, anticipating the trick and instead heading straight for the dazed Rhyhorn. It slammed into Rhyhorn's side as hard as it could a second before it hit the ground, sending it careening to the left until it slammed into the ground a second later.

"Riolu, you know what to do! Iron tail should work on Rhydon! Don't try close combat right now, not until there's only one Pokemon left at least!" He called out, feeling a pulse of recognition from the little fighter as it sped around the field, finally taking a hit from Houndoom's tail. It got caught in the reflexive backlash of the Fire Type's extra appendage when it hit its flank with a force palm and was sent flying ten feet back.

Riolu stood back up, shifting uncertainly on its feet as mercifully, the other two Pokemon remained engaged with each other.

"Stay at a range. Use aura sphere for now." Ethan instructed, eyes darting all over the battlefield.

Riolu retreated a further couple of feet and burrowed its feet into the ground a little bit. Now somewhat grounded, Riolu faced the Houndoom and Rhyhorn, the two of them in a complex tangle, and held its palms out, charging a small ball of blue light in them. Ethan frowned at how slowly it was going. The ball was growing at a crawling pace, shining brightly in Riolu's paws.

Riolu stood its ground as its ears flapped a bit in a breeze, still charging the sphere up. Houndoom's jaws managed to slip through a chink in Rhyhorn's armor and the fire type clamped down on the exposed hide, drawing roars of pain from the rock type. The girl with brown hair called out an inaudible order and Rhyhorn tried to surge forward, turning left instead because of its anchor in the form of the fire type next to it.

In Riolu's palms, the sphere had grown to the size of a basketball, and rather than growing larger, was now growing brighter slowly. Rhyhorn made its move and veered left in its already circular path and toppled over, spikes cutting into Houndoom as all of its weight collapsed on the hound's body. Seeing the opening, with Houndoom's limbs wrapped around the rock type's exposed belly, Riolu fired off the sphere, which at this point hurt to look at.

The aura sphere hurtled towards the two entangled Pokemon with the velocity of a missile, covering the distance between them in a second. The girls shouted out, but each was a tad too late, only making the situation worse as Houndoom managed to raise its head to listen to its trainer, and the full force of the aura sphere hit both Pokemon, Rhyhorn in its weak spot and Houndoom, quite literally head on. Rhyhorn skidded back three feet, flat on its back now, unable to move as its spikes impaled themselves in the ground. Houndoom, being far lighter, flew a good ten feet to the right, landing in a sprawling mass of limbs.

"Size doesn't matter in a Pokemon battle!" Ethan called out, turning to Riolu immediately. "Go! Force palm and Iron tail, take Rhyhorn out while Houndoom's dazed!"

With a small growl, Riolu shot off at Rhyhorn. It reached the rock types body, and without missing a beat, grabbed its head, both arms glowing with blue energy, and tossed it two feet into the air. The blue cub jumped up after it and slammed a brick colored glowing palm into the rock type's belly, drawing a loud cry of pain, and then finished it with an iron tail, sending it flying into the ground.

"Rhyhorn!" The brown haired girl cried out, rushing over to the fallen beast and examining it before recalling it.

"Houndoom! Fire Blast!" the stocky one shouted, fixing her hair as her Houndoom snarled, smoke already trailing from its nostrils.

"Riolu, run!" Ethan called out watching anxiously as a stream of fire poured out of the fire type's maw and formed into a five armed cross, the bottom two legs slightly curved away from each other.

The flickering flames coalesced into a burning inferno, rushing off from in front of Houndoom, and headed straight at Riolu. Ethan smiled as Riolu managed to get ten feet to the left of the fire, but the smile vanished just as fast; the five streams of fire extended all the way over to Riolu and reformed behind it, forming the same five armed cross again and rushing after Riolu. He noticed the flames flicker a bit more, seemingly weaker from chasing Riolu.

"Riolu, force it to chase you until it's weak!" He shouted, drawing the attention of the crowd as a young couple gasped at his strategy. All he bothered to pay attention to however, was the brief nod of confirmation from his Pokemon before it began a mad dash around the field, drawing the flames after it. Houndoom had settled down on its legs for a nap, eyes trained on the cub in front of it.

It took five minutes to get the flames down to a weak flickering red, and a minute later, they corned Riolu. The fighting type braced itself, accepting that it would have to take the hit now. The arms of the flames extended once more, except this time they didn't burn out from one end, instead they formed a sphere with the five armed cross at both sides, which rapidly shrank until it made contact with Riolu and exploded.

Ethan's ears were still ringing when the smoke cleared, revealing a fatigued, burnt Riolu in the same stance as it had been before the flames hit, paws raised and legs tensed.

"Riolu! Close Combat followed by Drain Punch!" He called out, deciding to try out their new wild card measure. The only reason it was a wild card was that while Riolu could perform the movements and achieve the speed needed for the attack, it drained Riolu a lot.

Riolu nodded, taking two seconds to get its bearings as Houndoom rose, staring it down. The Pokemon raced forward, ducking low and placing the first hit under Houndoom's jaw, before it hit Houndoom hard multiple times faster than Ethan could say Peanut Butter, leaving it drained. Then while Houndoom was staggering, Riolu hit it with its right fist, brick colored energy swirling around its paw and up its arm.

Houndoom's eyes drooped and its knees buckled as the twofold effect of the attack took its toll. First off there was the punch imbued with fighting type contact force, which dark types were vulnerable to, and then Riolu drained Houndoom's own energy to recover. And recover it did. The burn marks on its pelt were still there, but Riolu was moving its limbs in a more fluid manner, and landed two final blows on Houndoom, using its tail to smack its head up and then slamming it down with a force palm.

"My my folks! What a victory! And Mr. Photon gets the free glider ride!" He called out, drawing a few cheers; half of the noise was coming from Maurice. The two girls walked up to him, pressing money into his waiting hand one by one, the chubby one giving him a death glare to go with it.

"Come with me, and you can pick a glider." Escalade smiled, revealing three gold teeth.

"Aren't they all the same?" Ethan frowned, turning to the man as they walked over to the rows of gliders.

"I have hang gliders, all the same, and I have two body suits, one of which should fit you. They're fitted with Lithium cells that go on your back and a booster at the base of your spine. Gliding ratio of four meters forward for one meter down!"

"Can I do this in an hour or two? I have stuff and I need to get a room at the Pokemon center." Ethan gestured at the pack which was still on his back and Escalade shrugged.

"Sure my friend. Just come back up whenever you want your ride. Night time is a good time, flying over the lit up beaches and the city lights."

Ethan nodded in thanks and pulled his pack higher on his shoulder and walked over to the path down. He sighed, staring down the cliff: it was going to be a long walk for sure.

* * *

Ethan reached the Pokemon center an hour later, having walked all the way down the cliff side and across the Eastern Beach of Cianwood directly north to the city. He walked in through the automatic glass doors, finding not too many people in the center at three in the afternoon, and walked over to the nurses' station.

"Could I get a room please?" Ethan asked, handing his ID tag to the blonde nurse behind the counter. She had a thin face and green eyes, and her hair was drawn into a ponytail behind her.

"Sure. Room 117. You'll be sharing with me." She smiled, handing him back the tag. "I'm not a native, and while I am a certified nurse, that's not my profession. I offered to help out a few hours ago when the head nurse was fretting about the only other nurse here being ill. I'm on my way out to Olivine in a few days. I'm Blake by the way. Blake Whittaker."

Ethan took his tag back and shook her outstretched hand, unsure of what to make of the statement before it occurred to him that he should probably check whether any ships from Olivine had made it to Cianwood. He nodded at Blake, not bothering to introduce himself since she already knew his name, and walked down the corridor to 117. The room itself was small, barely fitting two small beds and a table between them. Ethan dropped his bag on the unused bed and walked straight out the door and back to the nurses' station.

"Hi Blake, could you please give my Pokemon a once over for me?" Ethan asked, smiling tiredly.

"Sure." Ethan handed Specter and Riolu's ultra-balls to her and walked on out of the Pokemon center, heading straight for the docks on the northern part of the east beaches, where all boats coming to the city were moored. The information bureau was devoid of any people looking for help, and only one counter was open.

Ethan walked up to the freckled teenager with curly orange hair and wire rimmed glasses sitting behind the glass and rapped his knuckles on the counter to get his attention.

"Excuse me, have any boats from Olivine City reached here in the past couple of days?" Ethan asked, straining to hear sounds of a shouting match somewhere in the building.

"Let's see… Two of the ships that were supposed to come here radioed ahead and said they couldn't make it past the Whirl Pools and turned around, and one arrived six hours late…. Let's see… That would be the Loan Vessel, which in case you're looking to charter a ship, is quite literally a loan vessel. It's docked at 3C." The boy leaned over the counter and pointed at the docks which were divided into sections labeled with letters.

"Thanks!" Ethan grinned, wanting to skip all the way there. He managed to get himself to walk there calmly. He walked up to the C dock, walking along it until he reached 3C, which was near the other side of the dock, closer to open sea. Sure enough, moored there was the same ship upon which Typhlosion had welded a new screen into the sockets.

"Is this ship available for hire?" Ethan called out, noticing Callie on deck, filling out some paperwork. She spun around, still holding a stack of papers as large as a phonebook in her hands.

"OH MY GOD! Ethan! You're alive?!" She shouted, tossing the paperwork over the deck of the ship and running down the gang plank at full speed.

"Aren't you going to have to do that paperwork again?" Ethan asked, wincing as it sank below the surface.

"Casualty report. But you're not dead, so it's useless." She replied, covering her face with her hands and bending low. "WESLEY! GO GET GRAMPS!" She shouted.

The muscular deck hand appeared out of the lower levels and climbed out, eyes widening when he saw Ethan. Failing to speak, he sprinted down the gangplank and off to the city.

"Oh my god what happened?" Callie asked, shaking her head.

"Feraligatr and dive saved me. It managed to get me to the Whirl Islands. I explored the cave system multiple times, and wound up making it to the deeper levels, where a group with contact to the mainland resides. They called the coast guard here and they sent me a chopper. I got here two hours ago maybe. What's the captain off doing?" Ethan explained, tilting his head.

"Arguing with the Cianwood coast guard to get permission to blow up a giant rock. The straits beyond the boulder line aren't exactly international waters, and by blowing a few rocks out of the way, we can go through those into international waters and from their turn east and hit Olivine. Maybe three hours shorter, and far safer, considering we wouldn't have to go past the whirlpools." Callie explained, sitting down on the gangplank.

A long serpentine form swam under the gangplank and the head of a Gyarados broke the surface of the water, coming up to Callie's height. A second followed, this one much older and with a thicker body. Footsteps sounded behind him and Wesley came running back, followed shortly by the old captain himself, riding a Segway.

"Callie! I yelled at them until I got a grant before I let Wesley drag me away? What was so urgent that you-." McAllister stopped dead in his tracks, mouth gaping as he noticed Ethan.

"Sup." Ethan waved, grinning as the old man slowly approached on foot, having abandoned the vehicle.

"My lord boy you're alive!? What happened out there?" McAllister gripped his shoulders and stared at him, his eyes meeting Ethan's.

"I got stranded on the Whirl Islands thanks to Feraligatr knowing dive. Long story short after a day or two I found people there who could contact Cianwood's coast guard." Ethan shrugged, examining the vessel. The hull had more than a few dents in it and the screen was scratched up, but then it was glass. There were maybe sixty long scratches across the body of the ship, and three times that in small scratches. "What about you guys?"

"We prayed for our dear lives after the roof broke off and got tossed around more than a bit, but a couple of hours later we managed to make it to this side of the sea and bore on for Cianwood. Nothing else we could do." the old man replied, clapping Ethan on the back and turning to the ship. "It'll take maybe two days to get patched up in case you're thinking of travelling. Maybe Callie told you, but I got clearance for a new route through the ocean, fifteen hours tops."

"Yeah. I think I'll be setting sail on the sixteenth, not after that though. I'll come find you when I need to leave." Ethan said, shaking the old man's hand.

"Aye, stay safe on land lad." Wesley called out as he walked away, to which Ethan responded with a thumbs up as he strode away, back towards the crew of the Loan Vessel.

He checked his watch, walking off in the general direction of the city; it was three on the dot, and true to the hour, his stomach was protesting for lunch. He looked around the street for one of the many tourist maps which dotted the streets, and spotting one, walked over to it. He looked down the list of restaurants, deciding that he could treat himself to something other than Pokemon center food once in a while. Picking the one he liked most, he walked the hundred meters from where he was standing to the Pokemon center, burning up in his hooded sweatshirt and jeans. He made his way to the room quickly and pulled a red T-shirt and grey shorts out of his bag, quickly changing into the shorts. He pulled his sweatshirt over his head as the door opened, ducking behind the wall immediately as Blake walked in.

He quickly pulled the red t-shirt he had selected on and stepped out from the wall which hid his bed from view by the door, staring right at Blake, who was blushing fiercely, dressed as she was in a blue tank top and white shorts.

"Hi." Ethan raised a hand, pretending that hadn't happened.

"Hi. Going somewhere?" Blake asked, relieved that he was acting as though it didn't happen.

"Yeah, thought I'd go get some lunch and then train on the beach's farther stretches, and it was way too hot for what I was wearing." Ethan. "I was just going to change and pick up my Pokemon if they've been healed. Then I thought I'd head over to the restaurant on the beach… I forget the name."

"Ben's grill?" she asked, going over to her bag and pulling a pair of sunglasses out of it.

"Yeah. That one." Ethan replied, stretching his arms.

"Let's go together then, I was going to head there too, and getting a table for one at Ben's is supposed to be really hard." Blake suggested, gesturing towards the door.

"Why not." Ethan shrugged, walking out and heading for nurses' station, where he picked up his Pokemon, both fully healed.

The duo made their way out of the Pokemon center once Ethan's belt had five occupants once more, the mental registration of which led Ethan to glance discreetly at Blake's waist. Pinned to her belt were two pokeballs, one of which had a teal upper half with rope netting embedded in it. Ethan turned his neck as he caught sight of a purple blur in his peripheral vision, and sure enough, flying at a close distance behind them was the same Gligar that had been flying around on the cliff. Deciding that maybe the streets of a city weren't the best place to engage it, he waited until they reached the beaches before he turned around.

"Game's up buddy, come on down here." Ethan called out, drawing the Gligar out of hiding. It hovered hesitantly in the air above them before it sank down to their level, two feet from Ethan.

"Have you seen this Pokemon before?" Blake asked quizzically, examining it.

"It was circling over the cliff when I was battling for a free glider ride before I got to the Pokemon center." Ethan shrugged, staring at the Pokemon. Its short stubby limbs were bright purple and it had blue wings, and a bulbous stinger at the end of its tail.

"Funny. This things been strong enough to evolve for quite some time now, but it hasn't. Maybe it saw your battles and decided you could help it; I'm assuming you won." Blake remarked, stepping back from it.

"Is that it buddy? Having trouble evolving?" Ethan asked, flinching ever so slightly as the Pokemon flew much closer to him, flapping its wings faster and faster. "I'll take that as a yes. I guess I'll go about catching you then."

Ethan reached for the spare pokeball –another ultra-ball- that he always kept on his belt and readied in his hand. All of a sudden, surprising both Blake and Gligar, he reached out and touched the tip of the pokeball to Gligar's nose, sucking it into the ultra-ball, which promptly fell to the ground. It shook violently for a minute before it settled down and a red hue enveloped the button on the front.

"Well then, let's get going." Ethan suggested, walking down to the small open air beach restaurant. It took them a minute, but they managed to get themselves a table, and a minute later they were sitting at a table on the sand, appetizers on the table.

Ethan picked up a mozzarella stick and started eating watching Blake carefully. So far he knew barely anything about her.

"By the way, happy birthday." Ethan stated casually, biting into another mozzarella stick as Blake stopped mid bite, staring at him.

"How did you know it's my birthday?" she demanded, setting the food down.

"When I checked into the Pokemon center, there was nothing on top of your bag. When I came back to change, there was a standard Pokemon center card on it. I just chanced a guess that it was for your birthday. I mean it's not mine." He shrugged as Blake settled down once more, eyes on the sea.

"Oh. Well then…. Where are you from? I didn't really read your data apart from your name. As someone who's not employed at the Pokemon center, I'm not entitled to do so anyway."

"New Bark Town in the east, not too far from Tohjo Falls and the Indigo borderline through Mount Silver. You?" Ethan answered, watching people flit about the beach and go about their days.

"Mossdeep City in Hoenn. I came to Johto with a friend to travel on my own for a while, and I'm meeting up with him in Olivine City in a few days to get sent back to Hoenn. I'm not particularly a professional trainer or anything, I mean I have two Pokemon which I've trained well, and I have a few badges back home, but that's about it… My hearts in engineering. I'm studying at the Mossdeep Space Center's Institute of Aeronautical Engineering." Blake replied, revealing more than a little bit about herself.

"I am a professional trainer, if that's what we're calling someone who's going on the gym challenge to make the conference. I'm on my journey right now. I've got four badges, I'll be taking on Chuck within three days, and then Jasmine in Olivine City. She's a menace to fight with her steel types." Ethan shuddered, taking a sip of his drink.

"Tell me about it. The friend who brought me here is a steel type specialist, and I've seen a Dragonite crumple against his defenses." Blake agreed, picking a chip up as her food arrived.

"When do you need to head back to Olivine? I've got a ship booked at a reasonable rate, and you could probably get the same rate. I'm leaving on the sixteenth." Ethan suggested, picking up a slice of his pizza, folding it over and biting into it.

"Consider your crew one person larger now. A guaranteed ship is a mercy. I was absolutely dreading having to find a ship that could take me with there." Blake replied, turning to the ocean to see what had enraptured him, seeing nothing of interest.

"So I know you have a Riolu and a Gengar, and now a Gligar. What else do you have?" Blake asked, picking up the conversation again.

"Typhlosion was my first Pokemon, Scyther my second, Feraligatr my third, then I got Specter, that's Gengar, Riolu and today Gligar. You?" Ethan retorted, turning the tables.

"Milotic and Froslass." She replied, brushing a few crumbs off her shirt.

"Both would have taken a lot of effort to evolve. For someone who's not a professional trainer that deserves a commendation. Cheers." Ethan raised the bottle of cola in front of him and smiled, looking back towards Blake.

"Thank. Anyway, it was nice talking to you, and thank you very much for the help with the ship. I guess I'll see you later in the Pokemon center then?" Blake asked, standing up as the waiter collected the bill.

"Later." Ethan raised a hand to his forehead and casually waved her off before walking in the opposite direction, down the sandy beaches south past the beach goers to a relatively empty stretch of land.

Seeing no one in within a reasonable range, he released his Pokemon onto the beach one by one. First off came Typhlosion, then Scyther, then Feraligatr, Specter and Riolu, that having been the order of their pokeballs.

"Okay guys, we have a new team mate. According to someone who examined it, it's been ready to evolve for quite a while, but hasn't been able to. So we'll get introductions through, and you guys can get to know him or her better, while I talk to an old friend of mine to find out why it hasn't evolved. Come on out Gligar!" Ethan pressed the button on the ultra-ball and released his newest Pokemon out onto the beach.

Gligar's floating form materialized in the air, surrounded by a semicircle of Ethan's Pokemon on one side, with Ethan on the other side.

"Hi buddy. These are my other friends. Typhlosion over there, Scyther, Feraligatr, Specter, and Riolu." Ethan gestured one by one at his Pokemon, the ground type warily following his hands. "Guys this is Gligar. Why don't you all get to know each other a bit better while I try and find out why Gligar has been unable to evolve up until now?"

He stepped away in search of a decently shaped rock, and finding one, sat down. Immediately, he opened his phone and scanned Gligar, opening up the data Brendan had stored on Gligar, skipping right past what he had read in the whirl islands to go to the part about its evolution.

 _Gligar evolve under certain conditions into Gliscor, which are very rarely found in the wild, and those that are found in the wild are generally in Johto. First off, Gligar needs a razor fang on it. Secondly, it needs to be night time, and I mean at least an hour after sunset, when the darkness has set in. Last but not least, the less traditional aspect of item evolution, duress. Same way a normal Pokemon evolves under duress or during a surge of energy, some Pokemon that evolve with items need to trigger their own energy because the items don't contain energy, like the razor fang. Something like a Dragon Scale on the other hand, would contain the energy needed to catalyze evolution._

"A razor fang and night time conditions…. Hmmm…" Ethan mused, standing up. He walked over to his Pokemon. Typhlosion and Feraligatr seemed to get along well enough with Gligar, still wary of it because of what Ethan had said in regard to its seemly lack of strength or capability. Specter was agitated, but then it was agitated quite a bit. Riolu seemed happy to play with the flying type, but Scyther seemed on edge.

"Okay guys. So I've looked up why you can't evolve Gligar. One of the conditions is an item we need, and another is for it to be night time. So here's what we'll do. We'll gauge your abilities right now, head out to the markets and try and find the item, and then we'll train until nightfall. If we can get you evolved today or tomorrow, you'll be a blessing in the match against Chuck, the local gym leader…" Ethan explained, sitting down on a closer rock. "Let's begin then shall we? Gligar, I want you to one by one use every attack you know, one let's say that giant boulder over there."

Ethan gestured at the boulder and waited, watching as Gligar examined it before it floated maybe fifteen feet from it. Gligar levels its fists, one beginning to glow. In a sudden move it rushed forward, pincer/fist glowing purple as it hit the boulder with a light hard jab, cracking the rock and letting poison seep into it and corrode it a bit. Next, without stopping, it bit the boulder in three places, once freezing a patch, once sending sparks over it to no avail, and once singing it.

"Okay stop for a minute!" Ethan called out, quickly typing into the notes app on his phone. It knew so far, poison jab, thunder fang, fire fang and ice fang. "Go!"

Gligar let a current carry it back twenty feet before it moved of its own volition, one arm poised for attack. It hit the boulder with a glowing black arm and wing, leaving a deep gash in it before it flipped around in midair and left a cross cut into it with two glowing green pincers. It let the air carry it back once more before it dove again, slashing the rock with a stream of white over one wing and pincer, doubling back and hitting the rock with a claw surrounded by purple streams of energy. Finally done, it floated over to Ethan and began watching him carefully.

Ethan typed into his phone swiftly, adding aerial ace, night slash, sucker punch and x scissor to the list.

"Okay, now we evaluate how strong you actually are. Riolu! Go all out against our new friend." Ethan instructed, grinning as Gligar's already fully open eyes widened comically before it flew back and took up a fighting stance, ready to take on what was being thrown at it. "Start!"

Riolu dashed forward, one palm already glowing, and its tail shining behind it. Gligar met the charge with one of its own, fangs, fists and wings glowing as it raced forward, closing the distance between the two rapidly. Riolu ducked at the last second, avoiding the swing of Gligar's sucker punch and lashing out upwards with its force palm.

The attack caught Gligar in the chest, but the flying type caught Riolu on its stinger and pulled it up for an ice fang to the shoulder before Riolu broke free by swinging its tail at Gligar, the glowing appendage met with an aerial ace. The two were caught in a deadlock as Riolu's next force palms were caught, one by Gligar's stinger, and one by its left pincer. Having somewhat immobilized Riolu in the air, Gligar's right pincer began glowing, followed shortly by Riolu's left leg glowing orange.

The fighting type Pokemon spun upwards in the grip Gligar had it in, lashing out for the ground type's head with its foot. It missed however, and Gligar got in a perfect opportunity to hit Riolu in the back with sucker punch and release it, sending it flying ten feet.

"Enough!" Ethan called out, breaking up the fight immediately. Gligar could trump Riolu for sure, but the question was how it would fare against one of his other, evolved, and not hatched only a few weeks ago, Pokemon. "Specter, your turn. I want to investigate the extent of your abilities as well for one. All out against Gligar!"

The apparition floated from where it had been sitting over to Ethan and Gligar, the latter of whom was looking a little bit fatigued. Ethan beckoned the flying type over and reached into his pocket for one of the two potions he had wisely decided to keep on him and sprayed it on one of Gligar's bruises. The flying type leaped back as it felt what Ethan assumed was a stinging sensation from the medicinal spray.

"It's okay Gligar, it's a potion. It heals wounds. Look, your bruise is already fading." Ethan gestured at the area where he had sprayed the potion with one hand as he spoke, and sure enough, the bruise that was there was already half the original size.

Gligar gingerly floated back over to him and held out its left wing, where Ethan sprayed over another bruise, and finally puffed out its chest. Ethan sprayed the potion there and shook the bottle to check how much he had used, guessing there was about half of it left.

"Okay, Riolu, come here and I'll patch you up while these two have at it. Specter, Gligar, you have a green light to go all out." Ethan instructed, narrowing the radius of the spray a bit to better suit Riolu's form.

A grin tore a gash in semi corporeal body of the ghost, revealing its serrated white teeth. With a low cackle, it floated about thirty feet away from Ethan and then some. Mimicking its adversary, Gligar flew off, making the gap between the two Pokemon some forty feet. Typhlosion jogged up to Ethan's side, followed shortly by Scyther and Feraligatr, watching warily as the two Pokemon stared each other down.

Ethan's head kept shifting from left to right, looking at each Pokemon again and again as they readied themselves for battle. Specter raised its fists, each glowing purple, and cackled. That was all it took to convince Gligar that the Gengar wasn't going to make the first move. The little flying type charged forward, using the breeze behind it as a tailwind and hurtled straight towards the ghost type.

Specter stepped to one side to avoid what it felt was an oncoming attack and extended its right hand, glowing purple claws extending out of it. Gligar however, slipped out of its defined path and veered up above Gengar, slamming the point of its tail into Gengar's body, swirls of energy flowing up the dimly glowing stinger at the end. Ethan's eyes widened as he witnessed the usage of sucker punch with a tail.

Gligar's blow seemed substantial as it left the apparition stumbling where it had been standing before it took the hit, its grin now a frown as it tried to figure out what had happened. One thought hit Ethan. Gligar seemed very young and trusting, and just as smart. With its age it had probably needed to learn to outsmart predators before it could defeat them with brute force. It was brilliant at predicting what another Pokemon was going to do.

Specter frowned, focusing on Gligar. Its eyes started glowing and Gligar turned away immediately, trying to avoid the inherit urge to stare into the glowing red eyes that were ready to put it to sleep at a whim. Specter grinned, seeing its opening, and fired off a shadow ball, followed in quick succession by two more. While Gligar was still dazed, the Gengar frowned once more, and focused, trying to create a narrow stream of ominous wind, in its own direction, to push the flying type back towards it.

It fizzled into the shadow of a nearby rock as it failed and unleashed a full force ominous wind, which succeeded in both hurting Gligar, and dragging it to where Specter popped out of the shadows. This time however, the flying type seemed to be prepared. The ghost lashed out with a glowing fist, only to be met with an X-scissor. Gligar turned the tables on Specter, lashing out with its tail glowing purple. While the poison from poison jab had no effect, it gave Gligar an opening to strike back with night slash and leave Specter with its hands across its face.

Ethan smiled as he watched the two of them go at it. The Gengar frowned and the area around it turned pitch black, engulfing both Pokemon. The darkness faded as night shade ended and Gligar immediately flew away, coming in for a rebound almost immediately. It slammed into the ghost with another night slash, and bit its shoulder with thunder fang, sending sparks through its body. Combined with the gaping cut through its middle, the force from Thunder Fang caused Specter to explode into purple vapor.

Gligar flew back, watching warily as the gases reformed into Specter's frowning form. The ghost's malevolent red eyes were fixed on Gligar, who seemed adamant not to let Ethan down. Specter shot forward, releasing a pent up shadow ball at Gligar as it charged. The avian dodged the sphere of ghostly energy only to come into the path of Specter's glowing fist and then be hit with a short range dark pulse.

Ethan watched closely as Gligar managed to regain its bearings amidst the onslaught and meet Specter's next attack, a sucker punch, with one of its own. Each held the attack for maybe ten seconds before they let go and fell back, eyeing each other carefully. The ghost type rushed into it without hesitation again and hit Gligar hard with a barrage of shadow balls, injuring it badly. Gligar, in retaliation, flew forward and by forcing Gengar to avoid another Sucker Punch, got it in range for a dark pulse followed by an aerial ace.

Ethan frowned and examined the situation. Specter was stronger than Gligar, but the battle would drag on for more than a little while longer before either of them collapsed.

"Enough guys! Let's call it quits for now! I've seen enough to decide what to do when we're back from the markets. I'm going to take you two to the Pokemon center and then head on out." Ethan called out, recalling each of them quickly. He returned all of his other Pokemon with the exception of Typhlosion, walking alongside the fire type to the Pokemon center doors, where he finally recalled it.

He entered the lobby and went to the main desk, where a bored looking nurse in her early thirties sat reading a magazine.

"Hi. Could you please heal my Pokemon for me?" Ethan handed over his pokeballs and his trainer ID, taking the latter back after a moment and heading out.

He made his way over to the markets between the docks and the beaches, where sailors, traders and explorers sold their wares and where merchants had set up their stalls. The scene was something out of a book, with stalls roofed with heavy cloth canopies. Poles buried in the sand supported the weight of the swathes of cloth which sheltered each merchant from the sun, and should it come, the rain, and cast shade over the four sided stalls.

Ethan looked around the area, walking through the throngs of people. He could smell spices from all over Johto and many that were brought over from Hoenn, and he could see a long line at the stall for fresh caught seafood. He kept walking, past cloth merchants with fabrics hanging from rods and lines of women at their stalls and past apothecaries with ground herbs until he reached the far end, where other odd wares and Pokemon items were sold.

He walked up to a merchant's stall and examined the wares, recognizing none as the razor fang as it was described in Brendan's footnotes. Still, deciding to test his luck, he waited until the merchant was done with another customer and waved his arm to get his attention.

"Excuse me sir, do you happen to have a razor fang?" Ethan asked, taking in the man's sunburnt skin and white turban.

"A razor fang…. Hmm… I don't believe I'm in possession of one right now. They aren't too uncommon, you should be able to find them in the market here, but not many people bother keeping them, which is what really makes them hard to find. Try some other stalls." The man suggested, walking off to the other side of the stall to greet another customer.

Sighing, Ethan walked away and continued his search of the multiple stalls which sold the type of items he was looking for. He found nothing on display in four stalls, and after talking to three of the merchants, still hadn't found it. He kept walking through the stalls until he reached a small corner where there was only one other person looking at the stalls. Deciding he may as well try, Ethan walked up to one of the two stalls and looked at the display case.

His eyes skimmed over the wares until he reached one particular one, a fang about as large as his hand and as sharp as a knife. Ethan motioned to the merchant and pointed at the fang, calling him over.

"You want the razor fang kid? It's one hundred and thirty dollars." The man shrugged, shifting his scarf.

"One hundred and thirty!? Seriously!? I got from Olivine City to here in not much more than that!" Ethan exclaimed. "One hundred tops."

"I'll give it to you for a hundred and fifteen kid, but nothing less." The man stared at him, tightening his scarf.

Ethan sighed, checking his wallet, and then nodded. He handed over the money reluctantly and took the fang, resolving to find a few trainers and try and get back however much he hadn't been willing to pay.

He started on the walk back to the beach, ambling down the beach slowly, past the crowds of people who had gathered in the late afternoon to enjoy the sunlight, and all the way down to the desolate stretch of beach where he had been with his Pokemon earlier. He figured it would probably be at least three more hours, until seven thirty, before the sun had set and it could be considered night time for real.

He sat down and pulled out his phone, fiddling with it aimlessly for a few seconds. It started ringing all of a sudden, and startled, he returned to reality and nearly dropped it. Professor Elm of all people was calling him. Worried, he picked up the phone.

"Hello? Professor Elm?" Ethan greeted him, staring off into the ocean.

"Ethan. Do us both a favor and get to the Pokemon center if you're not there. Use one of the computers for a video call. This conversation might take a while, and I'd rather not rack up a large bill for a call to Cianwood based off of your cellular signal on my mainframe's screen. Call me back." The professor instructed, leaving Ethan bewildered.

Nonetheless he slipped the phone into his pocket and set off at a jogging pace, heading for the Pokemon center immediately. It took him ten minutes with his stride to get there, and once inside, he made his way to the PC booths so he could make a private video call to the professor. He waited until one opened up and ducked into the stall after the occupant left. Quickly logging into his account on the trainer system, he opened the dialer and clicked the professor's address. A few rings later, he was on the line.

"Hello? Professor, can you hear me?" Ethan asked, speaking slowly.

"Yes Ethan, I can. How are you?" Elm replied "How's your journey been after err…. Was it Azalea Town?"

"Yes Professor. It was Azalea. Traveling has been good. I've got four badges, and I hope to have six within a week. Might I ask what brought about this call?"

"Um… Well… you see…"

"Something about the Totodile you gave me? It's a Feraligatr now by the way."

"Something of the sort." Elm agreed, nervously. He dabbed at his forehead with a handkerchief before he spoke again.

"You see. Pokemon which we commonly call starter Pokemon, the ones which are offered to trainers who passed with a high score in all fields of the trainer licensing test, and who live near research centers, at the beginning of their journeys, are very rare, and their continuation and the owning of these Pokemon is carefully monitored by the International Pokemon Research Association. The same association which even after our doctorates, is the only association which can in the field of study of Pokemon, accord a doctorate."

"The laws laid by the IPRA state that a trainer cannot be given two starter Pokemon without any valid reason approved by the board, under any circumstances." Elm hesitated.

"Professor where is this going? If I recall correctly you had a valid reason for giving me Totodile." Ethan asked fearfully.

"I rushed permission at the time, after all it seemed to be a green Totodile. The board enquired at the last meeting about what happened with the green Totodile I had given to a trainer who already had his own starter Pokemon. I was obliged to tell them the truth. As such I was ordered to retrieve your Feraligatr as you say it is."

"Professor!?" Ethan shouted.

"You win some, you lose some Ethan. I'm terribly sorry, but I'm afraid you'll have to return Feraligatr to me within a week, or the police or the staff of any Pokemon center will be legally obliged to seize it."


	11. Five Down, Three to Go

**Chapter 11: Five Down, Three to Go**

 **A/N: I redact the statement in the author's note of the previous chapter. Previously mentioned stuff translates into my moving to boarding school in a different state. I've got a day at home and then I leave, and I might write a lot on the plane because I have a LOT of flying time. THEN I have no idea what will happen. Review replies:**

 **anonoa: I know, it was a difficult decision to make, but I've made it now, and I'm glad it makes sense the way it does. Thank you for all that! I personally don't know if it's my best because I only write the chapter once, I don't rewrite it or edit parts much after I'm done, and I try to put effort into making the story realistic, and not singularly focused on the trainer and his efforts, but depicting Johto itself and I try to show that it's not just him in the world I guess! Lastly, looking forward to writing the story as well! Honestly despite this story being the least viewed amongst my ongoing stories, it's probably my favorite right now and I just love writing it!**

 **ThalTair: Again, it was a difficult decision to do that to Ethan. Can't wait to write on with this story!**

 **Enjoy, Spironax**

* * *

"You win some, you lose some Ethan. I'm terribly sorry, but I'm afraid you'll have to return Feraligatr to me within a week, or the police or the staff of any Pokemon center will be legally obliged to seize it."

Ethan stared at the professor's forlorn face through the screen, unable to process the ultimatum that had just been dealt to him. He was going to have to part with Feraligatr. Feraligatr, whom he had raised since it was a Totodile ready to evolve in Azalea town. Feraligatr whom had played a part in every gym battle after that.

"Goodbye Professor." Ethan managed, his lips drawn tight and his expression strained. "You'll have Feraligatr within a week."

He pushed his finger down on the mouse button to cut the call, so hard that he felt it might break. He stood up and walked out of the booth after he logged out, walking straight to the nurses' counter.

"Excuse me ma'am, could you give these Pokemon, and the ones I've already submitted for a healing a full examination, everything to do with them." Ethan tried to force a smile as he handed over his pokeballs and his card for the second time in a few hours.

"Blowing off some steam?" The nurse raised an eyebrow as she looked at his face.

"Something of the sort." Ethan replied, staring at the white veins in the black granite counter top.

"If you want to cool down, try the gym that Chuck donated. Down the cafeteria corridor, first door on the left." She suggested, handing back his card.

Ethan nodded wordlessly, having no better ideas, and headed off in the specified direction. He found his way to the gym quickly and walked inside, checking in and getting a set of exercise clothing from the clerk at the front desk. Ten minutes later, he found himself in the gym, wearing a tank top that was stretched more than a little bit and basketball shorts to match.

Ethan could feel a dull pounding in his head, and while he rationally freaked out internally, logic told him it was the sound of blood in his veins drowning everything else out. He made his way over to one of the punching bags in the corner and donned a pair of gloves, steadying his fists before he hit.

He slammed his right fist into the leather bag hard, pushing it back, and before it could swing back at him, he hit it with his left fist. Then came the barrage of hits. Ethan could hear nothing but Elm's words echoing in his head as hit after hit landed on the bag, beating it hard. Sweat began to drip down his brow, but he continued on, oblivious to the world as he pushed himself harder than he had ever done in the fitness program the schools in Johto were required to put students through, ramming his fists into the punching bag relentlessly.

' _For getting stranded on the Whirl Islands.'_ Ethan thought to himself as he slammed his fist into the bag, pushing it far once more. He took a deep breath and continued.

' _For Elm not warning me something like this might happen._ ' Another jab sent the bag careening on its chain.

' _For having to relinquish Feraligatr.'_

' _For having to give up one of my Pokemon.'_

' _For having to part with a member of my family.'_

Ethan gritted his teeth as he drove his fist into the bag as hard as he could, dislodging the chain from the hook it was looped around. It hit the floor with a crash and Ethan jumped in place, startled back to reality. Thinking on his feet, he hefted the bag up and looped the chain back around the hook twice, suspending the bag in the air for someone else's use.

Still driven by anger at what had happened, Ethan walked out of the gym in his own clothes and straight down to the showers, getting himself a stall and turning the tap to the hot side. He switched the flow to the shower head and let the water pour down on his shoulders and neck, soothing his muscles.

Ethan's head was swimming as he felt himself break down on the inside, sitting down on the shower floor with his head in his hands. He was going to have to part with Feraligatr. Anger at what was to come had come and gone, and now reality had hit him in full swing. This was happening. He sat there for twenty minutes, under the warm water, letting the melancholy feeling fill his mind before he got up, got dressed and walked back to his room. He lay on his bed, letting himself wallow in the depression of having to part with the Pokemon without whom he may not have been alive at the moment, and without one of the his best friends.

His mind drifted back to how as a Croconaw, it had fought so bravely against the Tyranitar in Goldenrod city, and how it had evolved into a massive, toothy Feraligatr on the way to Ecruteak, and then its victory against Morty's ghosts, alongside Typhlosion. Then its part in the battle against Jasmine, and last but not least about how it had saved his life.

Ethan lay on the bed until his phone started ringing. Still half fuming, half moping, he picked it up.

"Hello, Mr. Photon? Your Pokemon have been healed and examined. Please come to the Pokemon center's front desk to retrieve them along with their full reports." A nurse spoke down the line in a muffled voice.

Ethan sat up, staring at the wall blankly for a minute before he decided that moping about it wasn't going to do him any good. He stood up and walked out to the front desk, gladly accepting the occupants of his belt and a six page report on them. Taking it, he walked out to the beach once more, not wasting any time in making his way there and finding the same rock on the same desolate stretch of sand.

He released his Pokemon one by one, saving Feraligatr for last. He took a deep breath, staring each one in the eye, reports by his side.

"Feraligatr…. Professor Elm just contacted me and gave me some bad news. I have to return you to him within a week or any Pokemon center or police officer will seize you." Ethan swallowed, waiting for his Pokemon to react.

Typhlosion seemed to be frozen in shock, Riolu was standing in place with its tail twitching. Scyther's eyes were darting everywhere, and even Specter was somber, grin turned into a frown and eyes sad looking. Gligar, the newest member of their team was silent, fluttering about a bit, unsure of how to react.

Feraligatr stared at him for more than a few minutes before its eyes narrowed and it picked up a nearby boulder. Hefting it over its head, maybe eight feet in the air, it hurled it into the surf beyond with such force that it not only buried itself in the sand, but it shattered right through the middle as it did. It stared at the broken rock for a minute, letting its shoulder's sag and its spine slacken. It turned around and slumped over to him, wrapping its massive scaly arms around him.

"I know buddy. I know." Ethan whispered, scratching it between its scales. But right now moping isn't going to get us anywhere."

Ethan rose once Feraligatr let go of him and looked at his Pokemon one by one.

"Feraligatr has at most a week with us. During that time we will train, take on Chuck, and then return to Olivine City and defeat Jasmine! Feraligatr, you may have to go, but I want you to go out with your head held high. I hope I've trained you well, but if you get a new trainer, and they aren't good to you, give them hell." Ethan stared Feraligatr right in the eye, watching it until it slowly nodded. "Good! Then from today on no slow going! Let's make the most of our time together!"

Typhlosion was the first to agree, emitting a rumbling noise and nodding in agreement before it sprinted over to Ethan, looking at the picture of it on the first page of the papers in Ethan's hand.

"I've got detailed physical reports on you guys with me, so let's get going using these. Typhlosion first. So you're in good physical condition, your pelt is looking nice and glossy, the way it should be. Now my insights. You're brilliant with what you know, but we need to expand your move pool. We're going to work on two moves at a time, because one of them is a fire type move, and shouldn't be hard for you to grasp. Lava Plume and Brick Break. We'll come back to this once I start rounds." Ethan nodded in the fire type's direction and then turned.

"Gligar, our first priority for now will be to try and get you a basis for the ground type moves you're lacking so that evolution will hopefully cement them in. We'll start with Earth Power maybe, because that doesn't require physical contact or manipulation of the ground. Scyther, for now let's just keep on honing what we know. I'm going to try and get you a metal coat soon. Same goes for you Specter, but with Stamina training. I want you to be able to reform faster, more efficiently, and more times that you already can." Ethan explained to each of them in turn.

"Riolu, what we'll do is, because there are no other fighting type Pokemon on the team, I'll ask Chuck for help after we fight him, but for now, let's work on focus blast. It should be similar to Aura Sphere in some ways. And Feraligatr… Dragon tail. Right. Now find some space everyone, and I'll start rounds!" Ethan called out to all of his Pokemon. He watched them spread out until they were at reasonable distances for training and then walked over to Typhlosion, clutching his notes in his hand.

"Okay buddy, let's work on Lava Plume first. It should be easier than brick break to get. From what I know of the attack, it's basically spewing lava, either from your back for you or from your mouth. Let's get to work on the lava part, then we can get the plume part down. To be honest, I have no clue where to start, so if you feel anything, try it. I'll be back once I've looked it up." Ethan instructed, leaving Typhlosion amidst a ring of rocks where the lava wouldn't flow too far out when they managed it.

He trudged over to Riolu next and crouched down to the little cub's height.

"Okay buddy, so Aura sphere is creating fighting type energy that's supercharged and somewhat affected using the essence of you that makes up your aura right?" Ethan asked, grinning as he got into the zone.

' _Yes friend-trainer Ethan.'_ Riolu nodded as it spoke, jumping up and down.

"Okay so focus blast is essentially the same formation of the attack, except using natural fighting type contact force, and slightly larger and more focused. It shouldn't be too much of a problem." Ethan explained, standing up and going over to Scyther.

"Come on buddy, you'll spar with Specter. Specter! Get over here! You'll train with Scyther!" He called out, leaving the two to it.

He moved next to Gligar, who was awaiting instruction. "Gligar buddy, you'll be working on Earth Power. Wait a few minutes I'll be back. Feraligatr!"

Ethan walked to a slightly farther off rock with the water type and sat down. Feraligatr's eyes were a mix of emotions, confused, enraged, sad, and probably a dozen other things that Ethan couldn't see beneath the top layer.

"Hey buddy. This is going to be hard on both of us. I felt like- no I still feel like wringing Elm's neck for this predicament. Take all the time you want, I took mine to wallow before I decided to focus on making the most of this week. If I don't, I don't know what'll happen to me on the inside. You saved my life! You've done so much! I don't know what to say." Ethan sighed, putting one hand on the hunched gator's shoulder.

"The last thing I will say however, before we move onto training, is this: Thank you. Thank you for training under me. Thank you for taking part in all those battles, and for giving it your all in each and every one of them. Thanks for being a good Pokemon, companion and friend. Thank you." Ethan clasped his other hand over Feraligatr's scaly blue shoulder and stared right into its crimson eyes. The water type nodded slowly, a few tears trickling down its snout.

"Let's get on with training then. Think of aqua tail right now because we're going to work on dragon tail. Same principle, but with draconic contact force instead of aquatic. I'll be back as soon as I can, but I need to tell some of the others how to do their training first." Ethan nodded and walked off to the others, checking his watch as he did so. It was about five in the evening. It would be good to fit in maybe two hours of training before sunset, give them all a rest, and then try and get Gligar's evolution going at night.

He opened his browser and a few minutes later, continued on to Typhlosion. The fire type was waiting amidst the loose circle of rocks where it was to practice lava plume, smoke coming out of its back.

"Okay… So I don't actually know for myself what having the blood of a fire type feels like through your veins, or what having fire coming out of your back feels like, so I'll read off the screen." Ethan began, looking down at the open tab. "Try and harnessing the pounding feeling of liquid fire that you can feel when blood is pumping through your veins quickly. Force the heat into an actual physical form rather that into fire. This goes on for quite a wh-" Ethan looked up to see Lava pouring out of Typhlosion's back as it stared at him calmly, pooling on the sand and turning to hard stone.

"Well then…. I guess let's work on the plume part. It's sort of basically spraying your opponents with a plume of lava. One other thing I want you to work on. The consistency of lava alters how fast it cools down. Work on that so you could either reform the arena with rocks, or cover it in patches of magma. You've got this down for the most part so I'll leave you to it." Ethan shrugged. Watching Typhlosion make quick progress out of the corner of his eye, he walked over to Gligar.

"Okay buddy. So um earth power is too confusing for me to understand right now. I'll ask a nurse at the Pokemon center. For now let's work on two simpler things. First off is mud shot. Pretty simple really. Firing mud off at a high speed as a projectile imbued with contact force. You're ground type to even if you don't know any ground type moves yet, it shouldn't be too hard to get a hang of. Let's see what you can do."

Gligar nodded and focused, and slowly but surely, managed to draw up some mud, into a ball the size of Ethan's fist, and then shot it off at a nearby rock hard, making a crack in it.

"Okay… So keep going with that. Try first for speed forming it, then go for size and strength." Ethan suggested, sauntering over to Feraligatr last of all.

"Okay buddy, had any luck with draconic energy?" Ethan asked, sitting down next to the large water type.

Feraligatr shook its head, clenching its jaw and trying again to hit the ground hard with its tail glowing, but it wasn't imbued with even the slightest hint of draconic contact force.

"Well, I figured it would be a tough one if only because of typing. Why don't you keep trying while I do some resea—" Ethan was cut short by his phone ringing.

He pulled it out of his pocket and nearly dropped it in the sand when he saw the caller ID: Megan Connor. Megan was a childhood friend of his, the daughter of his parents' friends. Her father had lost his life in the same war that had taken Ethan's father in their childhood. They had grown up side by side, best friends, sticking with each other through thick and thin.

She inexplicably made him grin, and made his heart skip a beat whenever he spoke to her or saw her name on his phone. Ethan was unsure what he felt, but all he knew was that she was his best friend. Megan had fallen ill after graduating from the accelerated trainer education program at school alongside him and thirty other people. A month passed and it only got worse. Her mother, a practicing lawyer, had taken her to the best doctors in Johto.

Two weeks of tests diagnosed her with a rapidly reciprocating virus that was immobilizing and hardening the tissue of her lungs slowly, and at the same time causing her major arteries to swell up on the inside and stymy the blood flow in her body. Doctor's called it Eisenhart's disease. There was no proper treatment available yet.

There were however, cures in development. A company in Hoenn had cleared their product, and was going through licensing, but the only problem with their product was its volatility. It would decay or spoil within ten hours of manufacturing. Seeing a chance, her mother offered to help them through the licensing and approval process and expedite it while she set up shop in Hoenn temporarily in exchange for priority treatment for Megan. That had been ten months ago. Not wanting to let her drop the call, Ethan picked up immediately and pressed the phone to his ear.

"Megan! How are you?" Ethan asked, a smile growing on his face as he stared off at the ocean.

"I'm done with treatment Ethan! It worked! It finished about a month ago, and I was declared fit to go on anything as demanding as a Pokemon journey should I want to two weeks ago!" She laughed down the line.

Ethan was grinning like an idiot, elated. "That's great! When are you coming back?"

"There's been a slight hitch…. While I got better, my grandfather's health deteriorated…. I'm coming back to Johto on my own for a few days. I have relatives in Olivine who'll drive me to New Bark where I'll collect some things from the house and get a Pokemon from professor Elm because I registered as a Johtan for the tests, and then I'll head back to Hoenn, where my mother's promised me I can start my journey a few weeks after I get back if I want to. To be honest I do want to travel, but I don't really want to do the whole gym challenge or go to the conference or anything, or be a coordinator or something. I just want a good friend or two to have with me when I settle down." She sighed down, her voice slightly dejected.

"When do you reach Olivine? I'm travelling right now." Ethan replied, trying to lift her spirits.

"I'll reach on the morning of the seventeenth, around eight in the morning maybe, on the SS Anne." She replied, sounding hopeful.

"I'll be waiting at the bottom of the gangplank." Ethan remarked, forgetting his troubles for a moment.

"I can't wait to see you." Megan replied happily, and then she cut the line.

Ethan continued to stare at the ocean for a little bit with a happy smile on his face as Feraligatr repeatedly slammed its tail into the ground. A loud bang caught Ethan's attention and he turned to see Feraligatr standing next to a pile of blackened sand with granules of glass glinting in the sunlight.

"Try that again buddy. But on a rock this time." Ethan suggested, paying close attention this time, as with the utmost concentration, Feraligatr slammed its tail into the rock, a few bluish sparks trailing across it. "That's good. This was always going to be slow progress so for now that's good. I'm going to go check on the others for now. I'll be back."

Ethan strolled over to his Pokemon one by one. Specter was reforming from a nasty hit from Scyther when he walked by. Each was worn down from a constant battle at this point, but still raring to go. Riolu was making good progress with Focus blast, firing off orange glowing spheres that were a bit smaller than aura sphere, and less powerful, Riolu kept them going fast.

"That's good. That's our practiced approach: Speed first so that you can still distract an opponent, then power. Good work. Keep it up." Ethan grinned, looking over at Gligar, who was making the same progress, firing off the same small spheres of mud, but with a dim glow. Each projectile made a crater and a crack or two in the rock, which was now a battered down mess. Finally, Ethan went down to Typhlosion, who was easily spraying lava within its rock circle, and where the lava had receded, he could see glass.

"Good work Typhlosion! Any luck with consistency?" Ethan asked. He wanted to burst out laughing at how easily Typhlosion was doing it when it poured out two streams of lava one by one the first condensing into stone and sinking through the second one, which simply remained as it was, a ring of magma.

"You know what, let's start work on brick break. Fighting type contact force in a limb to hit with. The style of hitting is one clean hit with minimal contact for more pressure." Ethan explained, wanting to give Typhlosion a real challenge. "I'm going to go to Feraligatr now."

Ethan walked back down to where Feraligatr was, watching the water type slam its tail into the rock repeatedly, managing to get a few blue sparks to swirl around it ever time so far.

"Let's keep this going buddy." Ethan encouraged the determined water type, watching as it continued on. Sitting down on a rock, he focused on his plans for training, and for taking on Chuck and Jasmine, shifting his mentality for the time being and putting his focus solely on matter such as those as the time whiled away in training, each of his Pokemon making visible progress beyond where they had been except for Feraligatr, Scyther and Specter, the last two of whom wouldn't make visible progress for days at least, apart from slowly increasing the length of their spars.

* * *

Seven thirty four pm…

Ethan stepped through the doors of the Pokemon center, tired. He decided to do laps around his Pokemon since he had nothing better to do apart from observe them, and running for two hours had taken its toll. He looked around the Pokemon center once in the evening rush, taking in chestnut paneling over the glass door, a touch he had no doubt was reflected in every building in the city, specifically Chuck's gym. He stepped forward and joined the line, waiting his turn.

"Hi. Could you please give my Pokemon a once over, we've been training and sparring for a while now." Ethan smiled wearily, handing over his Pokemon when he reached the front of the line. Digging around in his pocket, he produced his trainer tag and allowed the nurse to scan it and register his Pokemon before he took it back and walked off to the room.

He walked in to find no one inside, and pulled out a plain t shirt and shorts to wear. Taking them in hand he made his way to the communal bathrooms and ducked into a stall to shower. He turned the tap all the way to the left, letting the scalding water pour down his neck and back. He took his time washing up and then sat down on the small ledge in the stall, taking his weight off of his legs and allowing the water to batter down on them.

His mind drifted to Megan and her phone call once more. His heart skipped a beat and he smiled at the thought of seeing her after nearly a year. Thoughts of his best friend took his thoughts in the direction of his other best friend in New Bark Town: James Mason. James had been the first person he had met on his first day of school when he was a kid, and two days later they were thick as thieves. Working without speaking on the basketball court and inseparable otherwise, they had the same interests at school and spent much of their time together when they were bored. Ethan was either with Megan or James all the time, or with both. James had decided to not go on a journey however, rather pursuing a different career, for now studying pure physics at the local high school.

Ethan let the thoughts drift out of his mind and turned the tap off, drying off and getting dressed. He made his way to the room and ditched his sweaty clothes, walking out to the cafeteria. The expansive room was at the end of the corridor where the gym was. The ceiling was about fifteen feet high all around, in case trainers decided to release their Pokemon, and supported by multiple circular pillars in a grid across the room. White linoleum tables with attached benches filled up most of the space in the room and the serving counter took up one wall at the end.

Ethan walked over and looked over the selection of fries made by passing a weak current through them, a seasonal salad, some fried Octillery, sautéed Magikarp, and a few other things. Taking some of the calamari, Magikarp and a bowl of fries, Ethan found a place to sit in a corner near the serving line. He dug into the meal hungrily, realizing he would need to restock on rations and a few other things before he left Cianwood, even though it was just a day's boat ride to Olivine. It would still be better to restock before he got there.

Ethan emptied his plate, and then the bowl of fries and took the dishes to a disposal bin, dropping them in quickly. He managed to make it out as the rush increased, as even trainers who weren't staying at the center came in for a quick and easy meal. The situation at the nurses' counter had eased up though, making it simple for Ethan to get to the front and ask what became of his Pokemon.

"Excuse me miss? My name's Ethan Photon, I checked in six Pokemon for a healing a while ago. I just wanted to find out what became of that, and if I could get them back if they're done." Ethan asked, handing over his card. Catching his reflection in the marble countertop, Ethan fixed his hair quickly as the nurse clicked away at her computer.

"Mr. Photon… My my… You must train a lot? You've gotten your Pokemon checked multiple times already. Well let's see. Your Pokemon are fine, most of them just needed some rest, so we gave them to our groomer and let them be. Your Scyther and your Gengar needed a bit of patching up, but not as much as they'd like to rest. Leave them be till morning maybe." The nurse suggested, handing over his six ultra-balls.

"Thank you very much, I'll keep that in mind." Ethan smiled, clipping them to his belt in order. He checked his pockets to make sure he still had the razor fang and walked out of the Pokemon center, whistling merrily out of joy of what was about to go down.

He walked out into the streets of Cianwood, marveling at how the city scape had changed as the sun had fully sunken below the horizon. The beach town had transformed into what looked like a festival with lanterns strung on ropes everywhere, on the sides of buildings and from poles, all the way out on the beach as well. The markets were still open, and the beach grills seemed to be thriving. He pushed through the crowds, making slow progress. Finally, seeing the lights up at the top of cliff, he got an idea.

He made his way over to the path carved into the side of the cliff after he broke out of the masses of people and started walking up it, making his way to the top. He stopped about halfway up and looked straight out at the city below him, marveling at the view. The Pokemon center's roof was apparently built out of reflective red mirrors, because the lanterns strung around the edges were casting a red glow into the sky using it, a beacon to all nearby trainers. The same was true for the pokemart. The city wasn't arranged in any particular way, and the messy style worked well with the carnival type scene that was being created. Ethan noticed one building standing out amidst the rush, without any people going in or out, with the exemption of the houses: Chuck's gym. The building was a rounded rectangle with a half barrel roof. Most of the building was wood with beams jutting out slightly and neatly making sections of the walnut paneling. The front door was glass alongside two windows from what Ethan had seen on the ground, and up here he could see a skylight section of the roof.

He continued his walk all the way to the top, where Escalade was still advertising his gliders to couples who were roaming about in the quite of the clifftop, enjoying the view. Ethan found himself a stretch of empty land, overlooking the city, and released Gligar, Typhlosion, Riolu and Feraligatr. Ethan gave Feraligatr a long look before he retrieved the razor fang from his pocket and beckoned for Gligar to come over to him.

"I got you a razor fang." Ethan smiled briefly, handing it to Gligar. As expected, nothing happened. Brendan had specified that they needed to simulate duress or any other catalyst for evolution, considering razor fangs didn't hold any latent energy after they fell from a Pokémon's jaw.

"Let's work on getting you to actually evolve now. Trying to lava trap you wouldn't make a difference, and nor would flames. You'd have to fight Typhlosion or Feraligatr to do this… So let's try something else. How about we try having Feraligatr utterly soak your wings so that they're heavy and you can't flap them. If it doesn't work we can dry them over Typhlosion's flames." Ethan mused, calling Feraligatr nearby. "Go ahead."

Feraligatr crouched low and let out a weak water gun onto Gligar's back, letting the water cascade over it without hurting it. A minute later it stopped, stepping back to reveal Gligar's wings, wet, but without having absorbed any water.

"Waterproof…. Hmm… Well then, Gligar, Riolu, you're playing catch then. Riolu, your job is to try and grab a hold of Gligar and not let it fly away." Ethan instructed, hoping it would work. Unlike a normal evolution, it wouldn't take too much effort to evolve Gligar. After all, all the other conditions had been met.

Riolu nodded, and without warning raced towards Gligar, bounding off a rock and into the air. The flying type's eyes widened and it moved out of the way, taking to the air once more, albeit flying low. Ethan watched Riolu chase it every which way possible and bound off of multiple rocks to keep it down low. The relentless chase carried on for fifteen minutes, with Gligar managing to outmaneuver Riolu every time. Ethan watched dejectedly, ready to call it off soon.

He started to raise his hand, but it stopped abruptly in midair, in an old salute used in the Reich's time, pointing forward. Riolu had managed to leap into the air once more, propelled by a kick downward at the rock, and this time, Gligar couldn't avoid it. Riolu came crashing into Gligar's back, grabbing a hold of it and dragging it down. Ethan's eyes lit up as the fighting type pulled Gligar down to the ground, heels kicking up dust as Gligar tried to escape to the skies. Ethan bit his lip hopefully as the ground type avian strained against the cub.

Gligar's body started to glow slowly, the light increasing as particles drifted off of its body. Riolu let go of the Pokemon and skid to a halt, watching as the light grew dimmer and dimmer, enveloping Gligar in a dim glow. Gligar's body dissociated slowly into hundreds of dimly glowing particles. Ethan watched in awe as the particles began to move about violently in a circle, forming a miniature tornado, until each particle split into three which grew back to the original size. They collected together and slowly the glow grew once again, before it died down all together.

The Pokemon in front of him was a pale indigo color, with large pure yellow eyes, a strong chest, black wings, massive pincers and longer arms. Its legs were still short, but not as stubby as before, and its ears had become a part of the smooth curve of its head, pointing outwards to the sides, red from the inside. Its body wasn't rounded like before, and connecting its abdomen and its chest was a thinner red section, marked in rings. Its arms had also become the same red, thinner and marked once more with rings, and its tail had grown much longer, not to mention it had three spikes now. It's posture was somewhat curved, ready to either take flight or attack, and standing that way, it looked to be about six feet from head to toe, but when it stood straight, Ethan guessed it was six and a half feet long. Its tail, when in the air, added maybe two feet or three feet beyond that. Standing in front of him, was a fully-fledged Gliscor.

* * *

Ethan tugged the zipper on the side of the boot closed, and stood up. He had asked Gliscor to wait for him and gone to Escalade, the glider man, and used one of his three free rides on the glide suit he had mentioned earlier. Ethan stepped over to the edge of the cliff next to Gliscor and looked down at the drop. The cliff face went down around sixty meters straight down.

His head started to spin for a moment, peering down at the lights over the edge and his world started to shrink. Gliscor's wing brushed against the shoulder of the white suit, bringing him back to reality.

"Okay Gliscor. I'm trusting you. If this doesn't work you have to catch me." Ethan warned, raising a hand towards it. "Let's do this."

Without a sound, Gliscor took off into the air on the light breeze, circling calmly without even flapping its wings. It disappeared below the cliff face, and Ethan took a deep breath, preparing himself for what he was about to do. He stood facing the sea, at the edge of the cliff, and jumped away from it, spreading his arms and legs immediately.

The fabric of the body suit caught the air beneath him and he pressed the switch in his palm, igniting the thrusters. All of a sudden he was flying forward, and he could see Gliscor. The sensation was absolutely amazing, the wind in his face, his goggles allowing him to see, his short hair standing on end, flying forward while he descended spread eagled. He tried to shout to Gliscor, but the wind snatched his words away, and he decided not to waste his breath anymore. Gliscor circled around him, flying in loops and doing tricks, riding the breeze and its undercurrent effortlessly in the air.

Ethan could see the beach getting closer and he careened to his left as they approached it rapidly, guiding himself over the water so that if he crashed, the padding in the suit would save him from the worst of it. It wouldn't really make much of a difference for a sand landing. Ethan pressed on, Gliscor above him now as it flew about on its own, testing his body. Ethan had reached whatever his terminal velocity was with the gliding suit a while ago, and now he angled himself so that the breeze was actually impeding his progress and slowing him down so that he could make a safe landing. He approached the water's edge near the lit up office where two other men were unclipping a glider from a couple's waists and stowing it away.

The ground was ten feet away and Ethan shifted to the position he had been told to, legs forwards so that he could hit the ground running and absorb the impact without too much trouble. One foot hit the ground and he used it to propel himself forward into a full on sprint, having disengaged the thrusters in the air. He tripped over a small rock in the sand and fell face first onto the ground, but it was nothing compared to what might have happened if he had tried to land without taking it running.

Adrenaline coursing through his veins, Ethan stood up and unzipped the pieces of the suit one by one, taking it off to reveal the red t shirt and grey shorts he had been wearing earlier. He picked it up and walked over to the hut, catching Gliscor in the sky out of the corner of his eye. The man standing in the cashier's counter of the building wordlessly accepted the suit, tossing it to his companion, who walked out to begin the long trek up to Escalade.

Ethan looked around the sky once more, but Gliscor was nowhere to be found. He gave the sky another once over before he turned around, and lo and behold, Gliscor was sitting behind him, grinning ear to ear.

"You're brilliant in the sky buddy!" Ethan gave the ground type a pat on the back and stepped forward. "Come on, let's get back so we can rest, and then get up tomorrow to battle Chuck."

Gliscor nodded in agreement, and Ethan started to walk off. He noticed however, that Gliscor was still behind him. All of a sudden, Gliscor's arms went below his and picked him up, pulling him onto its back midair. Ethan was disoriented for a moment, then he found himself on Gliscor's back, soaring low over the roof tops all the way to the Pokemon center, where his Pokemon deposited him by the door, and sat down to be recalled.

"That was amazing! We can fly together now!" Ethan smiled, recalling Gliscor, before he walked in, ready to settle in for the night.

* * *

Ethan woke up with a start, sitting straight up. His dreams had been fast paced and rushed, made up of fragments of previous dreams, of the massive white avian and its words. He stared at the clock on the wall opposite him, noting that it was six in the morning. He glanced over at the bed next to him. Blake was asleep, her blonde hair strewn over the pillow so he couldn't see her face.

He stared at her for a minute before he got his clothes and went off to the showers, getting ready for his day. His train of thought took off as he showered, things like who to use against Chuck, and whether the gym leader would be willing to help him out with Riolu coming to the front of his mind. The little cub needed a guide who understood the exact methodology of a fighting type, and could help it. So far he was thinking that he needed to use Gliscor, Riolu and Specter. He was unsure whether the battle would take more Pokemon than that, but if it did, he'd rather give the battle to Feraligatr, because it was well known that one of Chuck's favorite Pokemon to use was his Poliwrath, and Scyther wasn't suited to fighting fighting types.

Ethan walked out to the cafeteria once he was done, eating a quick breakfast and making his way out to the beach again. There were one or two things he wanted to work on before he took on Chuck. It was the morning of the fourteenth of September, and he was thinking that he should leave on the morning of the sixteenth, which gave him two more days to roam about or train in Cianwood.

He reached an isolated patch of the beach, but then again, most of it was empty at this time of the day. He released his Pokemon one by one, Gliscor last of all so that they all took in the evolved Pokémon's new form before they started training.

"Okay guys, same drills as yesterday, except you Gliscor. I want to try one thing before we get going. Everybody else start, Gliscor, launch some mud shots on a rock." Ethan instructed, watching as his Pokemon dispersed and Gliscor flew over. It readied itself and shot three fast shots, each the size of a melon, and each making a deep crater and a web of cracks in the rock.

"Okay we've got that down. Let's move on to something else. Drill run. Simple concept, head on charge at your opponent, spinning like a drill for a piercing hit, and velocity. It should whip up wind around you, so try for that and try for a weak rock first.

Gliscor nodded and let out a low noise before it stepped back and charged. Its body contorted in the air as it began rotating, the cord like red sections of its body helping it with that. Gliscor charged forward, picking up speed until it was too fast for Ethan to try keeping track off. Instead of wasting his time with that, Ethan watched the rock Gliscor was flying at. A minute later, Gliscor cracked through it with a white drill like whirlwind spinning around it. It let the wind die down and approached Ethan, panting.

"Okay... so we need to work on stamina, and strength. Keep this up. I'm going to go over to Feraligatr now."

Ethan walked over to the water type, sitting down on a rock behind it and watching it relentlessly pound the rock next to it down with its tail repeatedly, once more, conjuring blue sparks, a few more than the day before. Progress was slow. After all, a fully-fledged dragon tail attack went to a full glow, and then later, there would be no bright glow, but a dim outline once the Pokemon had it down. At least that was what he had found. Watching Feraligatr brought all the thoughts about having to give Feraligatr back to professor Elm surging to the front of his mind. A cascade of emotions rippled through him, anger for a brief moment, then desolation. After the sinking feeling which accompanied desolation came a wave of determination to make use of the week as well as he could.

"Hey Feraligatr. You're making some progress." Ethan remarked, standing up. Feraligatr uttered a low guttural growl in response, resolutely continuing on with its training. "Come on. It's not like progress was going to be any faster in the first place. You're not a dragon type, and your species was never even remotely draconic."

Feraligatr stopped for a moment and shrugged, going back to its task. Ethan sighed. It was going to be a long morning. He went over to Typhlosion, who was attacking rocks with its right arm, a faint rusty glow shimmering around it.

"Nice, but it'll still take some work. Hopefully we'll have it down by either afternoon, or evening, so that we can start on another move that'll be a great help with Jasmine's lineup." Ethan commented, walking over to Riolu next.

The cub was firing off Focus blast after focus blast. While Riolu had increased its speed in attacking to a good point, there was still that little time while it was readying the attack when it was rendered immobile and open to attack. While unlike focus punch taking a hit wouldn't cause the effort of the attack to go to waste, it was still a chink in the armor. Ethan walked over to Gliscor next, letting Riolu continue with its training and took a look once more at what it was doing. Gliscor seemed to be getting the hang of the movement, and picking up velocity with its body was no problem, it was just the sheer amount of energy needed for the attack, and being able to change direction once the attack was in motion, that was bothering it.

Ethan watched it for a while, smiling at how it did its bit with dedication and resolution, determined to persevere. Looking at it, Ethan was glad he could have helped it evolve, when it had been unable to do so on its own for so long. He cast an eye over his entire team, as was present, from Typhlosion to Riolu to Feraligatr and back to Gliscor. Each of them had been the best they could be, and he was proud of them, and overjoyed that he had them, as well as Scyther and Specter. Scyther was comparatively quite, and Specter a loose cannon when not in battle, but they, and all the others, were his little family.

* * *

Later in the afternoon…

Ethan stepped forward, gritting his teeth as he stared at the frosted glass doors, with two window panes by them, the same height as the door. Beyond them, the entire building seemed to be wooden. Ethan pushed one of the doors open and stepped inside, entering what seemed to be a full training dojo with a battlefield in the center. The back of the room was made up of rising, terrace like stone platforms, not very wide, but stretching the entire length of the room. A cascade of water poured down from a pipe attached to machinery hanging from the roof, the water pouring down over a man and flowing down the terraces in streams, with little wooden bridges built over them.

Gym trainers went about their work on the terracing, no one standing on the highest level same for the man under the cascade. A long stream of water collected from all the streams of the terraces and ran the length of the room, along the bottom terrace, with two bridges across it, one on the left and one on the right. The edges of the bridges touched the white lines of a battlefield on an open dirt floor. To one side of the room, beyond the battlefield, was an entire gym for physical conditioning, and to the other, a training field. The point of interest for Ethan in the room however was the man under the cascade. He could see him through the clear water. His chest was bare, and while he was stocky, he made up for it with his muscle. His chest had the defined cuts of each muscle, and his arms were massive. His legs were covered in red pants that were torn at the bottom, and his face had a bristly beard growing on it that went down from his side burns, and turned into a moustache, with a bit cut out under his nose. His hair was short, spiky and the same color. His hands were raised holding up a metal rod with multiple massive weights fixed onto each end.

Ethan walked up to the receptionist and tapped the wooden desk to get the woman's attention. She was a plump woman wearing a flowered dress and an apron, with curly hair.

"Oh dearie, are you here to challenge my husband?" She asked, looking up at him from the balance book she had been working in.

"That would be correct." Ethan replied, assuming she meant Chuck as he handed over his ID for registration.

"I'd call him, but he wouldn't hear any of us under that water fall. Climb up the platforms to the winches on either side and shut it down to get him to listen to you." The woman sighed, looking at Chuck with a forlorn look. "That man never stops unless it's to eat!"

Ethan walked out across the battlefield, to the bridges, walking down the one on the right to the stone platforms. A man in karate robes was stretching on the stone, and gave him a passing nod. Returning it, Ethan resumed his task. Seeing no simple way up the rock without disturbing multiple people, Ethan put his hands on the next level of the platform, about four feet up, and pulled himself up onto it, using the craggy rock wall below as a foothold. He thanked Arceus that the stone wasn't wet where he was climbing and continued on that way until he reached the winch.

Attached to the wall, and a series of gears and pulleys behind it was a massive cog. Ethan looked at the winch behind it and placed his hands on the cog, leaning on it and pushing it to the right. It took him two minutes, but he managed to get the cog to spin maybe six feet to the right, and with a loud thud, the water flow lessened, and some water began to flow from the back of the gym, beneath Chuck's legs and into the streams.

Seeing the effect, Ethan slowly clambered down the four levels until he was back at the bridge, having no way to get to the other side other than to go back down. Ethan walked all the way down to the bridge, and made his way up the levels once more, and sure enough, there was another massive cog there. A look at the winch told him all he needed to know. He pushed it to the left, heaving until it switched and another loud thud sounded. Ethan looked up to see a massive wooden platform with edges, about five feet wide, ending just above Chuck, from where water slowly stopped flowing, leaving only a trickle. There were two other similar channels for water, leading down from the main one, just before the water fell, to the back of the gym. Ethan guessed that he had just diverted water into both of them.

Seeing his chance before Chuck marched off to the winches, he clambered up the side of the final platform to the massive gym leader and shook his hand. Up close, Ethan got a taste of just how big he was. The man was easily six foot four, and his musculature did nothing to diminish his large image.

"You turned off the cascade?" Chuck roared, laughing. "Well at least you're not one of those wimpy shrimps who get their Pokemon to do their work for them. You're no weightlifter, but you're not a slacker either."

"Thank you sir, but I'm not here to join as a disciple. My name is Ethan Photon and I'd like to challenge you to a battle to try and earn the storm badge." Ethan replied confidently.

"Damn right you will!" Chuck's mouth grew into an ear to ear grin and he clapped Ethan on the back with a massive hand, shaking him slightly.

"Sorry, but isn't that what everyone does?" Ethan asked, thoroughly confused.

"Everyone just says they want to come and get the storm badge! You don't necessarily deserve it if you defeated me! You on the other hand said you wanted to earn it! That's what I like. Come on down to the battlefield!" Chuck said appreciatively, his booming voice ringing across the room.

Ethan followed him down to the battlefield, taking up a position on one side of the white rectangle.

"Three on three! Single battle!" Chuck called out, reading the paper his wife handed him. "Four gym badges…. Okay! When you knock out a Pokemon you're allowed to switch out, not otherwise! Challenger releases first!"

Ethan picked a pokeball instead of nodding, and pointed it forward, releasing Riolu onto the field. The blue cub saw where it was and immediately assumed a fighting stance. A gym trainer ran up to Chuck with a tray of pokeballs, five of them, and set them down on a small table next to him. Looking over them, He picked one of them and released a small brown humanoid Pokemon onto the field with rounded hands and feet, and blue body sections, not to mention a conical hat like formation on its head above its beady black eyes.

"Hitmontop! Triple Kick!" Chuck called out, revealing to Ethan what the Pokemon was. He had heard of Hitmontop before, but never seen one before. They were supposedly very hard to evolve.

"Riolu!" Ethan shouted as Hitmontop approached, spinning upside down on the point of its head. "Counter with reversal!"

Riolus sidestepped the first kick and grabbed Hitmontop's leg. With a dim glow surrounding its body, Riolu spun Hitmontop around and tossed it across the room.

"Low Kick, followed by Force Palm!" Ethan ordered, watching as Riolu's speed let it reach Hitmontop just as it came to a halt. The blue cub kicked it in the side, up a foot and forward ten as Chuck began shouting out rapid fire orders, taking a different stance.

Riolu approached for a Force Palm and was met with a knee kick by Hitmontop. The fighting type had used its own momentum and height to execute Jump kick, and flying back to the ground, took its stance on its feet again, ready to kick into action.

"Riolu, Aura Sphere followed by Focus blast!" Ethan called out, letting Riolu attack, quickly, firing off two aura spheres, which served the purpose of chasing Hitmontop into position to be hit with a glowing orange sphere the size of a basketball.

"Hitmontop! Rolling Kick sequence!" Chuck shouted, sending Hitmontop close to Riolu to attack it with spinning kicks, its specialty. Not seeing it coming, Riolu took the first hit.

"Counter with close combat!" Ethan retorted, giving Riolu a measure of defense as its limbs kicked into overdrive, matching every kick Hitmontop threw at it and even the guarded punches it launched at Riolu's legs. The fighting type finally saw its opening when it held Hitmontop's leg for more than a second and caused it to topple.

Still in Close Combat, it hit Hitmontop maybe six times before the beady eyed Pokemon, slamming a drain punch into it to finish it. Wisps of energy, not many but some, trailed up Riolu's arm and it jumped back, leaving Hitmontop to rise out of the dust.

"Hitmontop! Triple Kick then Storm Throw!" Chuck called out, letting the little fighting type take the lead as it attacked Riolu repeatedly with its kicks. It grabbed a hold of Riolu's leg with its empty hands and spun it around a few times before it tossed the other fighting type into the field, sending up dust everywhere.

"Riolu! Brick Break!" Ethan shouted, letting Riolu get up first before it charged. Hitmontop moved and made to lash out at Riolu with its leg but Riolu ducked, swerved and hit it in the side, sending it flying. Hitmontop slid down from the stone wall to a stop, collapsed.

"Good work Hitmontop! Take a rest." Chuck recalled his fallen fighter with a smile and released another Pokemon onto the field, a round Pokemon with shaggy white fur, a brown nose, brown limbs that weren't particularly long but were fine for fighting and broken shackles around the ankles and wrists. A Primeape.

"Primeape! Vital Throw!" Chuck called out. Ethan swore under his breath as Primeape charged recklessly, covering the distance in a second. It grabbed Riolu and threw it across the room with such force that Riolu hit the wooden paneling of the walls, cracking it, and collapsed.

Ethan recalled Riolu quickly, frowning. Primeape was obviously stronger than Hitmontop. He debated for a second which pokeball to pick and then took Specter's ultra-ball off his belt, releasing it into the arena. The deep purple ghost took a moment to form, its teeth shining white as its mouth stretched into its usual malevolent grin. Specter looked around the arena and zoned in on Primeape, taking scope of its opponent and cackling.

"Well now…" Chuck frowned for a moment. "Primeape! Thunder Punch!"

"Specter, use Ominous Wind followed by Shadow Punch!" Ethan called out, giving the Gengar its instructions.

The fighting type charged recklessly, as was its nature, leaping into the air. Seizing the moment, Specter unleashed a purple wave of wind, followed by multiple streams of purple, blowing Primeape back as it screeched in pain. The ghost ducked quickly and cackling, slammed a pitch black fist into Primeape, followed by another.

"Now retreat and use shadow ball, then Hypnosis!" Ethan ordered.

The Gengar floated back, charging up a shadow ball in the blink of an eye and fired it off at Primeape. The fighter was somehow on its feet and met the shadow ball with a crackling fist, sending smoke everywhere as a loud bang sounded, the shadow ball having exploded.

Primeape leaped into the air, fist glowing a deep purple this time, and Specter hurriedly pointed its arms at it and frowned, eyes glowing. Unaffected, Primeape sailed through the air and slammed its fist into Specter's side, causing a bit of its body to evaporate and then reform as the ghost screeched in pain.

"Bad move. Primeape's ability doesn't let it fall victim to moves like hypnosis which try and induce sleep. And now… once more!" Chuck laughed as Primeape rebounded off of a wall and hit Specter again, and then once more after it passed through Specter's body.

Specter sank to a lower level, writhing in pain for a few seconds as Primeape stopped to regain its breath.

"Specter, use shadow ball, get close and use night shade and shadow punch!" Ethan instructed.

With a new determination, the ghost type fired off a volley of shadow balls, chasing down Primeape. Maybe four of ten hit their target, the other forcing it into the line of fire. Immediately, while Primeape was still dazed, Specter sped towards it and enveloped them in a pitch black sphere, eliciting shrieks from Primeape and then let the darkness fade, punching Primeape once again.

Apparently on Chuck's earlier orders, Primeape slammed a flaming fist into Specter before it got away, followed by a blackish glowing one. Specter managed to get away, trembling badly. It hadn't had to reform, but soon it wouldn't have the strength to do so. The Gengar floated high in the room, grinning as it saw Primeape panting.

Ethan frowned, wondering how Primeape had worn out so quickly, and then a pulsing vein in its arm gave him the answer. Ethan's frown turned into a smile as he waited to give Specter another instruction or two. The two Pokemon lingered in their positions, Specter refraining from attacking, and Primeape being unable to reach the roof with any effective attack.

"Specter! Ominous wind followed by night shade!" he called out, watching as Specter summoned another purple flecked wind to injure and hinder Primeape before rushing in and enveloping them in darkness. Ethan heard cries from Specter too as the darkness receded and left Primeape standing there. Specter was slowly dissociating, having passed out.

"Good work buddy!" Ethan recalled Specter and clipped the ultra-ball to his belt, picking the last one off of it and holding it steady. "Are you going to change Pokemon?"

"Nope." Chuck responded, crossing his arms as he waited. Ethan shrugged and released the newest addition to his team onto the field: Gliscor.

"Fly high." Ethan called out, letting Gliscor take to the air and circle just below the roof. Two minutes passed with Primeape now standing on one knee, panting heavily.

"What are you playing at kid?" Chuck demanded, staring at Gliscor.

"You might want to take a look at your own Pokemon." Ethan gestured at Primeape, which promptly collapsed, falling face first onto the dirt. "I didn't know what had happened at first, but I figured it out a little while ago. By breathing inside my Gengar, Primeape inhaled a dose of all the toxins and gases that make up a Gengar's corporeal form, and poisoned itself. That and Specter dealt it a fair bit of damage."

Ethan stared with a lopsided grin as Chuck recalled his Primeape, gritting his teeth and roaring.

"You've got a sharp eye kid." He Chuckled, releasing one last Pokemon onto the field. A humanoid brown Pokemon about half a foot shorter than Ethan with no distinct neck or head, but eyes on the upper part of its body, and white coils for limbs with brown hands and feet at the ends formed on the battlefield.

"Hitmonlee! Let's waste no time! High jump kick!" Chuck shouted. Hitmonlee, as it was, bent down and then used its coiled leg to propel itself up into the air and towards Gliscor, extending its other leg in a long range kick.

"Arceus! Gliscor dodge it and weave between to attack with aerial ace!" Ethan called out, just in the nick of time. Gliscor ducked beneath Hitmonlee's leg and spun upwards, slashing its left leg immediately with an aerial ace, which it carried on all the way until it reached Hitmonlee, and then hit it again with the same attack.

"Now! Mud shot, Thunder Fang and Poison Jab!" Ethan shouted out as Hitmonlee plummeted to the gym floor, catching itself on its springy arms and flipping over onto its legs. Ethan did however notice how it winced as it put weight on its left leg.

Gliscor followed his orders to the word, eager to perform well, and fired off two mud shots, the first of which Hitmonlee avoided and the second of which it redirected at a wall. Gliscor dove towards Hitmonlee, and while it failed to make contact with the Thunder fang, it certainly managed to slam its glowing purple spiked tail into Hitmonlee and hold it there for more than three seconds before it let go and escaped.

"Mud shot!"

"Detect and double kick!" Chuck retaliated. Hitmonlee's eyes glinted for a moment and it poised itself, catching and redirecting the mud shot with ease before it jumped at Gliscor. Gliscor managed to avoid its first kick but the second caught Gliscor in its upper purple chest section and sent it into the roof.

"Gliscor! Get down and use mud shot followed by drill run!" Ethan shouted, giving Gliscor a chance to recover its balance as it fired off the volley of mud shots.

Hitmonlee took a second to avoid or redirect all of them, and in that second, Gliscor charged, spinning about as it went into Drill Run. Hitmonlee saw it at the last second and veered to the right, but Gliscor still managed to hit it hard on one side, sending it into the ground next to it.

Hitmonlee got to its feet, knees slightly wobbly and glared at Gliscor, jumping up and attempting multiple times to kick it, before it lashed out with one freezing cold punch which hit Gliscor hard and dealt it a good bit of damage.

"Gliscor, we can't let this drag on too long! Mud shot, this time to actually hit it!" Ethan called out once Gliscor was up in the air and steady again.

With a low noise of agreement, Gliscor fired off mud shot after mud shot, firing all in all twelve, of which the last four actually hit Hitmonlee. "Drill Run followed by Aerial Ace!"

Gliscor dove once more, rapidly accelerating and clipped Hitmonlee in the side again, and then maneuvered around and hit it hard with aerial ace, to be met with another ice punch. Hitmonlee was weak and wobbling from the poison from poison jab, and Gliscor was worn down. While it was strong, its body wasn't built to take strong hits.

"Gliscor! Finish this with Poison Jab and X-Scissor!" Ethan shouted, letting Gliscor jab its tail into Hitmonlee again, and then cut it across the chest with two glowing green pincers. Hitmonlee staggered to its knees, and for good measure, Gliscor slammed a purplish glowing fist into it, hitting it with sucker punch and taking it out for the count. Gliscor wasn't much better off either to be honest, but it had still prevailed.

"Great work buddy!" Ethan shouted, running over to Gliscor once Chuck had recalled his fallen Pokemon. "You were awesome! Let's get you into your pokeball for some rest now."

Chuck walked over once Ethan recalled Gliscor and grasped his hand, nearly crushing it as he shook it. Ethan winced when he let go and tried to hide it, standing straight.

"Well done kid. You know what, you've earned the Storm Badge. That's a pretty well trained Gliscor you've got there, not to mention your Riolu. Come with me, I'll get you the badge."

"Sir, I wanted to ask if you could help me train my Riolu for two days today and tomorrow. It would be good if Riolu trained alongside a real fighter if even for a little bit." Ethan asked as they trudged up the path the trainers had cleared on the platforms up to the top and to the back.

"Tell you what. You come and do your training here today and tomorrow while I work with your Riolu. I'd enjoy that." Chuck laughed as he used a hand crank to imprint the badge into Ethan's metal ID with his strength, and then handed him a physical one. "I'll see you later then."

"Yes sir!" Ethan replied, grinning lopsidedly as he walked out of the gym and to the Pokemon center. He walked into the red roofed establishment and to the nurses' counter, where Blake was sitting on a chair reading a magazine.

"Hi Blake, could you patch these guys up?" Ethan asked happily, his troubles out of mind momentarily as he handed over the three Pokemon he had used. "And by the way, I'm going to leave on the morning of the sixteenth if you want to tag along. I'll go tell the crew in a little bit."

"That sounds fine. I'll see you later." Blake replied, registering his Pokemon.

Nodding, Ethan headed back to the room where he took the badge out and looked at it. It was a plain bronze circle with a small circle half embedded in the left side, and outlined, alongside lines cut into it to make it look like a rounded fist: the Storm Badge.

' _Five down, three to go.'_ Ethan mused to himself, staring at the alluring surface of the badge.


	12. Let the Flags Fly & All Hell Break Loose

**Chapter 12: Let the Flags Fly and All Hell Break Loose**

 **A/N: So…. Hope to find a routine for writing in my new life now, probably on weekends. Side note, written much after the rest of this AN. I've put my other two stories on hold to work on this, and after this I hope to get a chapter out every week or every other week. 100K Words! YAY! LET'S CELEBRATE! R & R folks. **

**Spironax.**

* * *

Ethan's eyes snapped open all of a sudden, giving him a view of the room, wide awake. Sunlight was streaming through the window, and like the previous day, Blake was asleep on the bed. He glanced at the plain silver watch on his wrist with its exposed gears. The time read six in the morning. Ethan looked around the room once more, making sure nothing was out of place, trying to figure out what woke him up. Then he felt it. There was a small needle in his watch, which was set at any fixed time, so that when the gears pushed past it, they activated a vibrating alarm without jarring him.

Ethan sat up, wondering why on earth he had set his alarm for six in the morning, and then it hit him like a brick. He scrambled out of bed as quietly as he could and rushed to get dressed. He managed to fit in a quick shower and get to the cafeteria for a bit to eat. He found himself a seat, which wasn't hard considering there was only one other person awake, and shoveled the meager breakfast he had taken down his throat, his mind drifting off to the day before. He had walked out of the gym doors, physically drained, having decided to work in the gym a bit while his Pokemon went about their training, checking on them periodically.

Chuck had put Riolu through its paces before he began the real training, having Riolu train with his Hitmonlee and his Hitmonchan to effectively use its limbs in battle. It was rigorous, but Ethan could already see changes and improvements in Riolu's fighting style when he walked over at the end of the day.

" _Be back here at around six tomorrow. You won't leave before the end of the day unless it's to eat. That my friend, is one thing I understand."_ Chuck had laughed, patting his hard stomach.

Ethan placed his tray and silverware on a rack and dashed out of the cafeteria, drawing stares from the workers. Sprinting the whole way from the Pokemon center to the gym, he made it there by six fifteen, walking in the glass doors not a minute later. The gym had one trainer working on the stone ledges, and then there was Chuck standing under his waterfall.

Ethan pulled a repeat of the day before, climbing up the ledges to pull the cogs and change the water flow. It took him another five minutes, but by the end of it, the water wasn't flowing onto Chuck anymore, and he had dropped his massive barbell, having noticed Ethan.

"Good! You're here!" His booming voice filled the gym as he climbed down the pathways to the ground, followed shortly by Ethan. "Bring out your Pokemon and get on with your own training while I work with that Riolu of yours. It's a mighty quick learner for sure!"

"Yes sir." Ethan reached for his belt and released Riolu first, motioning to Chuck, who was waiting for the fighting type so that he could begin training.

Ethan watched Chuck walk off to the battlefield with Riolu, releasing his own Pokemon, Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee to help him train the little cub. He turned to his left, facing the empty training area and began walking. The area was treated so that attacks did little to nothing to it unless they were fairly powerful, allowing trainers to train as hard as they wanted in the place. The floor was covered in mats of some substance which was solid enough to walk on, but when damaged reformed and set itself so that there was no wound. On top of that, after asking Chuck the previous night, he had also learnt that they somehow passed healing serum into a Pokémon's body when they stood on the mat, or were in contact with the mat, therefore making it so that Pokemon could spar or train for much longer in the training area.

He reached the partition and stepped over the one foot high wall surrounding the training area, feeling the slight tugging on his navel that he had been told came from a psychic barrier designed to prevent attacks from getting through, but to let anything else through. He stepped off onto the other side, reaching for his belt. He released Typhlosion first, scratching the fire type on its back where it couldn't reach for a minute before he continued.

He released Feraligatr next, then Specter, Scyther and Gliscor. One of people at the gym had been very helpful the previous day, aiding him in teaching Typhlosion Brick Break. Now he was working on another move with Typhlosion, which he had been given guidelines for: Focus Blast. It would be invaluable against Pokemon like Houndoom, against which fire was useless, and against rock and ground types. He was once again taking advantage of being in a fighting type gym, mere feet away from a fighting type master, and was teaching Gliscor Drain Punch before he moved onto Earth Power, partially because using earth power would burn through the mats from below and he didn't know if they could come back from that. Scyther and Specter were as they had been previously, sparring to work improve their own abilities.

"Okay guys, same drill as yesterday for the most part. Gliscor, we're working on Drain Punch today instead of Drill Run. I think we got that down last night. Typhlosion, we'll move on to Focus Blast. It's ranged contact force, which gives you a better chance using it against Steel, Rock or Ground types which have strong defenses for physical attacks. We'll set about this and then I'll go to the gym section and work out, because I may as well. Like yesterday, I'll come back to check on you guys periodically so that I know how we're doing." Ethan explained.

Scyther nodded and moved off to one side, waiting for Specter, and Feraligatr took its own place to practice or rather learn Dragon Tail. Ethan took Gliscor and Typhlosion off to one side, where there were dummies that were designed to act like batteries, for the sake of learning moves like drain punch.

"Okay, so focus blast. You recall the fighting type contact force the man yesterday helped you harness right? You need to channel pure contact force into a concentrated sphere which you launch at something. You've seen Riolu use it, you should have some idea." Ethan told Typhlosion, turning to Gliscor.

"You on the other hand have never done this before…. Hmm… Let's see…. Okay, how about this… You know how to use thunder punch, fire punch and ice punch. Let's think of this as those with a different energy first. Get some help from Typhlosion in harnessing the fighting type contact force, and then first just go for the punch part. We can always work on drain later." Ethan suggested, leaving them to it.

He walked across the gym by the sides of the battlefield, stopping to watch Chuck and Riolu. They were going through their exercises first, moving to align themselves to different forms, and lashing out at thin air. Keeping an eye on them, he continued on to the gym section of the building, where there was one man using a chest press. He picked up a set of gym clothes from the bench where they were stacked and went to the changing room, quickly getting dressed. He walked out, his clothes in a locker, wearing a sleeveless jersey and sweatpants that he had to tie tight because they were a tad loose.

Seeing a mirror, he stopped by it and examined himself in it, taking in how traveling had changed his body for the first time since Goldenrod. He had talked to his mother the previous night.

" _Eat properly! Traveling takes a lot out of you! I bet that when you come back you'll be two or three inches taller, have no excess fat and probably have a beard!"_ She had chided him over the phone, leading Ethan to wonder just how much he had changed.

Traveling had indeed stripped all of the excess fat from his body, leaving his jawline clearly defined and his muscles visible to anyone despite the fact that they weren't really big. He was fit, but he wasn't a weight lifter or a boxer or anything. He played basketball at school, which had however done wonders for his stamina, which in turn explained why he wasn't sore the first night of his journey. His arms weren't as thin as some people he had seen, and he had a decent amount of muscle. His arms, his legs and his chest had toughened up over the past couple of weeks as well. He didn't however have a beard, and what stubble did grow, he shaved. He turned around, wondering for a second whether Megan would like his new physique. His cheeks heated up at the thought and he pushed it out of his head, making for the machines lined up against the wall to start off.

By lunch when he checked on his Pokemon, they had made considerable progress. Typhlosion was able to charge up a Focus Blast, albeit a small one, and slowly at that. And Gliscor was getting closer to getting the hang of punching using fighting type contact force. Ethan had decided to sit down and watch his Pokemon after lunch, until he was able to go use the machines again. He had been about to return to the gym section, having taken an hour and a half after he had eaten, when Chuck dropped by.

"I noticed you're doing some physical conditioning of your own kid." He remarked, looming over him.

"That I have sir." Ethan replied, standing up.

"Well then. Show me what you've got. By which I mean run as fast as you can, for as many laps around the gym field. If you're fit enough, I'll teach you how to fight." Chuck stood back, giving Ethan space to get started on his laps around the battlefield.

Grinning, Ethan stood up and checked the laces on his shoes, making sure they were tied before he took off. He managed to run for a good amount of time before he stopped at the edge of the field, where Chuck had stood the entire time, shouting out orders to his Pokemon on the battlefield.

"Impressive. What did you do at school? Track and field? Athletics?" Chuck asked, sizing him up.

"Basketball sir." Ethan replied, catching his breath.

"Well then… Let's get to the gym and put you up against a punching bag. You shouldn't have too many problems learning to knock out an opponent if you ever need to."

Ethan nodded, following the massive man down to the gym, where he spent the remainder of the day, learning to fight. Chuck watched over him and the Pokemon on the battlefield at the same time, shouting orders that occasionally got mixed up between the two of them.

By the time Ethan left the gym that evening, he was battered and bruised, having fought three rounds against another of Chuck's trainee's. He had lost the first two, but managed to knock out the other man before he called it quits for the day. His Pokemon had made progress as well. From what he could infer through Riolu, Specter was able to reform at least one more time than he could have previously, and Scyther had gotten much better at finding seemingly random patterns in movement to attack based off of. Gliscor had managed by the end of the day to get far with plain fighting type punches. Typhlosion was still working on the size of the Focus blast though. Feraligatr however, had had nearly zero luck. It was still producing a meager amount of blue sparks at most.

Ethan stepped out the glass doors for the last time, into the fresh air of the evening. It was around seven thirty, and the first place he headed was down to the docks to the Loan Vessel. The ship was bobbing gently in the tide, a long dark form lurking around it in the ocean. The crew were sitting on the deck, eating something. Ethan walked up the gangplank, knocking on the small gate at the end.

Callie looked over, and seeing him, came to unlock the gate.

"Good evening lad. What can I do you for?" McAllister asked, putting down a sandwich.

"I'd like to leave tomorrow. How much for two passengers?" Ethan asked, crossing his arms.

"Eight dollars a head after what happened last time. Fifteen hours to Olivine." The captain shrugged, standing up. "And I will not take more than that."

"Eighty dollars a head it is. If its fifteen hours… I'll be here around seven or eight in the morning then." Ethan nodded at the captain, pulling eighty dollars out of his wallet and handing them over. "My down payment. I'll see you tomorrow then."

With that, Ethan disembarked the boat and walked back to the Pokemon center, enjoying the light breeze. The city was abuzz with people roaming about the lantern lit streets, enjoying the night or simply returning home. He went straight down the road to the Pokemon center, entering the building quickly as a light drizzle started up. Once inside, he walked over to the nurses' counter, where Blake was on duty.

"Hi. Can you check these guys up?" Ethan handed over all of his pokeballs and his ID, waiting as the brunette registered them. "I set sail tomorrow, around seven or eight. Captain's saying eighty dollars a head."

"Where on earth did you get a boat to Olivine for eighty dollars a head?" Blake inquired, handing back his ID card.

"It's a small boat… And there was some mishap last time near the Whirl Islands. Long story short, the captain's refusing to take more than eighty a head. I'll see you in the morning." Ethan took his ID and walked to the room, getting a change of clothes first, so that he could shower and then go to bed.

He walked into the communal bathrooms, finding himself a stall so that he could shower quickly. He ducked inside, undressing quickly and locking the door. Once the shower was on and the hot water was streaming down his back, he relaxed, allowing himself to simply let go after a tiring day. He would set sail for Olivine city in the morning, and be there when Megan arrived. She would probably be in Olivine for a day or two, resting before she went to New Bark to get her things. He also hoped that this time he would fare better against Jasmine. He recalled her team, her Skarmory, the Magnemite, and of course, Rusty the Steelix who was in no way rusty.

Ethan mused about which Pokemon he would use this time around as he washed up. Definitely Typhlosion, probably Feraligatr and maybe Riolu or Gliscor. Then again, it depended on whether it was still a three on three battle now that he had five badges instead of four. He picked up his clothes and got dressed once he was done, vacating the stall.

He made it to the room without any trouble and made for the bed he was using, collapsing on it. Lying down under the sheets, he set his alarm on his watch for six and turned over, slowly drifting off to sleep.

* * *

The next morning…

Ethan woke up to the familiar vibrations on his wrist. He reached for his watch and reset the alarm ticker and then looked around the room. Sunlight was streaming in through the window, pale and bleak. It had probably rained a lot the previous night. Ethan sat up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Blake was lying on her bed, hair covering her face.

He stood up and walked to the door, where a sticky note had been secured with tape.

' _Wake me up when you get up to leave. Blake.'_ It read. Ethan looked over at her, and sighing, walked over to her. He moved next to her and shook her gently through the thick sheets, stepping back as she woke up. She was clutching the pillow tightly and squinting at him in the morning sun.

"Why'd you wake me up?" She mumbled, glaring at him.

"So that you could get ready so that we could leave and reach Olivine by tonight." Ethan retorted, crossing his arms. "I'm going to go take a shower and have breakfast. I'll meet you in the lobby at seven."

With that he headed off for the showers, freshened up and went to the cafeteria. This time there was no one there except a bored looking worker behind the serving line. Ethan took a generous helping of sausages and a few pancakes and sat down, digging into the meal. He devoured everything on his plate and washed it all down with a glass of water before he headed back to the room.

Blake was nowhere to be found, so he sat down and packed up his things, ranging from his clothes to the few odd things he had removed from his bag. Checking his watch, he decided to go restock on supplies since he had plenty of time. He walked out to the pokemart, restocking on supplies, and then into the wilderness store, which had caught his eye.

It was a small building with a glass front wall made up of floor to roof panes about a meter wide joined together by some black rubbery substance to make a wall. The doors were whitewashed wood around the edges, framing a white paper screen, and the walls as far as he could see were eggshell white. The roof was thin, black and seemed to be made up of carbon fiber panels, and tilted off of the building a little bit, providing about a foot's shelter from rain. He walked inside the door, a little bell ringing as he entered.

The walls were lined with all sorts of equipment and a rack of bikes stood at the back, reminding Ethan of his own folding bike. He examined the rows of things, ranging from grappling hooks and industrial strength cable to tents and fishing rods. Picking up a bunch of cable, a grappling hook and a few other things, Ethan made his way to the counter, where a clerk scanned his items one by one.

"Good morning sir. That'll be fifty six seventy four." He smiled, fixing his glasses.

Ethan handed over the money, counting the change so that he gave the precise amount required, and took his items. Holding his bags in hand, he went to the Pokemon center and added the things to his pack. It was around five minutes to seven at the time. He gave the room a cursory glance to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything and then went out to the nurses' counter where he collected his Pokemon.

Blake entered the lobby, wearing a navy tank top and grey shorts, with a backpack slung over her shoulder. She had tied her blonde hair back in a ponytail and her eyes were sparkling.

"Now that I'm actually awake, good morning and lead the way." She gestured towards the door, checking her pockets with her other hand.

"Good morning to you too." Ethan replied shortly, leading her out the door and through the streets to the docks. The loan Vessel was at this point the only boat docked in section C, and looked ready to depart, despite how cloudy the sky was.

Ethan climbed up the gangplank and knocked on the gate, seeing Blake behind him out of the corner of his eye. A few moments later Wesley came out to open the gate, unlocking it and letting them through.

"Captain's in the bridge. You can go leave your things in the bunks below deck." He grunted, heading off to the far side of the small boat to check something.

"Welcome aboard the Loan Vessel. That's Wesley." Ethan gestured towards the deckhand as he led Blake through the sitting area down to the bunks and ditched his pack and bag on a bunk.

"Not bad." She replied following suite and then going up with him to the bridge.

Ethan slid open the glass door between the sitting area and the bridge, walking in. Callie and McAllister were examining a map on of the table screens as the windshield displayed a bunch of diagnostics being run.

"Aye lad. We'll be ready to set sail in fifteen minutes, make yourself comfortable." The captain greeted him, supplemented by a small wave from Callie as she accepted the money Blake handed over.

"Let's go and sit then shall we." Ethan asked Blake, going back to the sitting area and settling down on one of the couches. "So just to make sure I haven't forgotten anything, you came from Hoenn with a friend and you're being sent back by the friend from Olivine's harbor."

"That's about right. What do you plan on doing next?" She replied, sitting down in an armchair, which was bolted to the floor.

"Meet a friend who's returning to Johto tomorrow and then take on Jasmine again. After that I'll see." Ethan shrugged, settling down on the couch. It was going to be a long fifteen hours. "I'll continue traveling though. Its midway through September, and I might be able to get all the badges in time to register for the conference in December. Pryce and Clair are supposed to be hell to fight though. Jasmine I think I can beat this time around."

"Well good luck with that. Now I'm going to go below deck and crash for a while, because I'm more than a bit tired today." Blake stated, heading for the ladder.

Ethan shrugged once more in response, settling down on the couch. He looked out the window as they approached a line of ten foot or larger boulders sticking out of the ocean. Two dark forms emerged from the water, sending up spray. Callie's Gyarados and the captain's took up position near it, maws perpetually open. Ethan heard the captain shout once, then twice, and then a third time. The Gyarados must have heard him, because they reared, and fired off a hyper beam each, the white hot beams of energy hitting the massive boulder directly in front of the boat. The streams of energy carved of pieces of the rock, and crushed other pieces, and simply disintegrated much of it.

Ethan placed a hand over his eyes until the perpetual glow died down and looked again. Sure enough, there was nothing on the surface of the ocean where the boulder had been. However, the boat was still not moving. The Gyarados dove and started circling again, before they lit up the ocean with their hyper beams, this time safe to watch. Ethan marveled at the show. He could see hundreds of water type Pokemon crowding around the Gyarados, coral reefs occupied by Corsola, and other things, including the base of a massive boulder which was slowly disappearing. Ethan smiled as the Gyarados finally surfaced, sending up spray again, and settled down as the boat began to move once more, carefully passing through the gap in the boulders. Once it was on the other side, running in a hundred meters wide strait between two lines of rocks, it started to pick up speed. Lying down, he dozed off right there, deciding to pass the hours as such.

* * *

Fourteen hours and fifty six minutes later….

Ethan stood on the prow of the ship, holding onto the railing as they docked, Blake standing next to him. By his feet were his pack and bag. Wesley picked up a massive coil of chain, one end of which was looped and tossed it around a post on the docks, where a dockhand wove it through multiple hooks to secure it and then gave them the thumbs up. Callie had done the same at the other end of the boat, and it gave one final shudder as the captain killed the engines. Ethan stepped up to the gangplank, Helping Wesley lower it, and then hefted his belongings over his shoulder.

"Thank you for the transport Captain." Ethan shook their hands one by one once the captain emerged from the bridge.

"No lad, thank you for the business." He responded, shaking his hand firmly.

"Have a safe career." Ethan bade as he walked down the gangplank, followed by Blake. "I guess this is goodbye."

"So long sucker." Blake responded jokingly, shaking his hand and then walking off, not in the direction of the Pokemon center.

Sighing, Ethan through the dead streets of the market and into city proper. He made his way up the winding, sloping streets, until a half hour later, he was standing in front of the Pokemon center. He walked in the automatic doors to an empty lobby. A half asleep nurse leaned on the counter, watching a news reel on a TV mounted up on a pillar. Ethan walked up to her tiredly, waving to get her attention.

"Good evening sir. How can I help you?" She asked, yawning.

"I need a room please." Ethan handed over his ID tag, waiting.

"207. Nobody else in there right now." She handed back the ID tag, turning to the TV once more. Ethan found his way to the room and unlocked the door, locking it once inside and then went straight to bed again. It was maybe midnight, and he could fit in some sleep before he woke up to meet Megan at the docks.

The night passed quickly and when morning came, he found himself in the Pokemon section of the cafeteria, getting his Pokemon fed. He had found a brush in the bottom of his bag that wasn't for him, and was using it to groom Typhlosion while the fire type devoured the food in front of it.

He brushed the fire type's sleek blackish navy back once more, smoothing it out, then he set the brush down, watching it eat. One of the breeders working there had helped him haul out food for his Pokemon, all of them except Specter, who didn't need to eat. Typhlosion lay down as the others continued to eat, Riolu finishing next, followed by Gliscor, and lastly Feraligatr. Ethan got up and recalled them one by one, going to get himself some food as well. After all, he needed to eat didn't he?

He scarfed down three Oran berry muffins and an egg, topped off by a glass of juice. He headed out to the docks, checking his time. It was around seven forty by the time he got there. Seeing as he was early, he walked to the information bureau and got in line, waiting his turn. It took a few minutes thanks to the number of people looking to get boats. Due to the weather in Olivine, he was once more wearing his red hoodie over a grey black shirt and jeans.

"Excuse me, when does the SS Anne dock here?" Ethan asked as he reached the front of the line.

The man in the booth, a young man with a brown beard trimmed close and hair swept back, typed into the computer quickly and then answered him. "Last radio contact was thirty minutes ago, they should dock in ten. Would you like to book a cabin?"

"No thanks, I'm meeting someone." Ethan replied, walking off to the docks. He made his way to the stretch where cruise liners and massive commercial ships were docked, which was nearly as long as the stretch for fishing boats due to the sheer size of the vehicles. He sat down on a bench with a clear view off of an empty docking spot.

Five minutes passed, and he could see a large ship approaching. It was white with silver patterns adorned on the hull and the sides. There were three stories of cabins and it was one of the longest ships Ethan had ever seen in his life. He crossed his arms and waited, capping the bottle of water he was carrying. His heartbeat picked up as the SS Anne, for it was the SS Anne, slowed down to a halt in the deep port, deck hands shouting down to the dock workers to secure the boat. Ethan walked as close as he could get and waited, his heart rate picking up as the massive metal gangplank was lowered to the docks. Passengers started to disembark, and the first person came down the gangplank, wheeling a small red suitcase.

Ethan's heart almost stopped when he saw her. She was about five foot seven, and her pale, heart shaped face was framed by brown hair drawn into a messy ponytail, some of which fell over her shoulders. She was wearing a red sweater over a tank top, slid down a bit to show her left shoulder, and jeans. Her aqua blue eyes met Ethan's and a grin formed on his face as he walked forward to meet her. She had definitely grown since he had last seen her as well. She picked up her pace and walked over to him.

Ethan stood still, waiting for her to approach, his mind in turmoil about what to say when he met his best friend after such a long time. She walked up to him, and without a word, let go of her suitcase and wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him as hard as she could. Ethan returned the gesture, albeit without all the strength he could muster, for fear of squeezing her too hard. He took a deep breath, registering that she was wearing the same cinnamon scent as always. A minute passed and then she let go, releasing him and punching him lightly in the chest.

"Oh my god, why did you have to hit me so hard!?" Ethan gasped, buckling over to feign injury.

"Hey you!" she replied, giving him another quick hug once he was standing straight.

"Hey you." Ethan repeated, grinning once more as he took hold of her suitcase so she wouldn't have to carry it.

"Let's go sit at a coffee shop or something before we start with the talking. And I need to leave my things at my uncle's house before that, not to mention meet him." Megan sighed, grabbing his arm and leading him up the streets to one of the residential districts of Olivine, a ten minute walk away.

The area was a small housing community with three streets in it, off of the slopes of the city, with a houses of all colors, including a black one, in the line. She led him to a small two story house with whitewashed walls and a sloping red tiled roof. The garden was decorated around the edges with flowers of all sorts and berry trees, and a path cut through it to the front door. Ethan walked up it behind Megan up to the frosted glass and chestnut door.

Megan reached up and rang the doorbell, waiting silently until a minute later a thin man with the same brown hair and rectangular wire framed glasses opened the door. He looked down his thin nose at Megan's face, registering who was at the door for a moment before a smile broke out on his face.

"Megan my dear! How are you? It's so good to see you back and healthy!" He hugged her, nodding at Ethan once he let go. "Ethan was it?"

"Yes sir. I was in the city and when Megan told me when she was arriving I thought I'd go to meet her at the docks." Ethan replied.

"It's so good to be healthy Uncle Richard. I can finally go back to a normal life. Or as normal as it can be when I have to stay in Hoenn." She frowned a bit as she spoke the last sentence, but then her face lit up again as she walked inside behind her uncle, gesturing for Ethan to follow. He walked into the narrow hallway with stairs to one side and a door leading to a small dining room on the other, through the end of the corridor to an open lounge with a few embers crackling in the hearth.

"Let me just take your things upstairs." Richard said, taking the suitcase from Ethan and going out into the hall. Ethan could hear his footsteps as he marched up the steps and walked to another room upstairs.

"Let's sit here for a while and then maybe go get some coffee or something? What else were you going to do today?" Megan asked, sitting down and curling up in her chair.

"I plan on taking on Jasmine for a second time now that I have five badges, but that's about it. I just have to meet someone in a day or two, and then I'm back to roaming about Johto." Ethan replied, sitting down on a plain red couch opposite the fireplace. A few seconds later Richard came back down the stairs and sat down opposite Megan, leaning forward.

Ethan zoned out for a few moments, staring into the fire as family discussions and other things went on, waiting for it all to end.

"So Ethan," Richard began, causing him to snap back to reality, "What brings you all the way from New Bark to Olivine?"

"Well sir, I'm taking on the gym circuit so that I can take on the Silver Conference at some point, hopefully this year." Ethan replied, sitting up a little bit.

"Wonderful. Traveling must be a great experience. Personally I never went on a journey, rather I chose to go on with my studies immediately." He sighed, sitting back.

"Uncle Richard, I was wondering if it would be okay if I could go out for a while and catch up with Ethan." Megan asked hesitantly, catching him completely off guard.

"Of course, but try and be back by lunch, your aunt's out with little Frank and Francie, getting groceries to make you a nice meal." He replied, standing up.

"I will. I was actually about to ask where they were anyway." Megan remarked, standing up. Ethan followed suite, getting up to leave. "I'll see you later."

Ethan nodded at her uncle, walking out behind her once more, onto the open streets of the little area known as The Flats, because it was one of the only parts of Olivine on entirely flat land apart from the beach and the top.

"So… Where do you want to go?" Ethan asked, putting his hands in his pockets.

"I don't really know. Let's just find any nice café." Megan shrugged gesturing forward.

"Follow me. There's a nice little one opposite the gym, but it's a little bit of a walk up there.

"Why not. You said you wanted to take on the gym again anyway, and I for one, would not mind watching." Megan remarked, wrapping her arm through his and walking with him up to the little café where he had had breakfast one day opposite the gym.

He walked into the little shop and sat down at a small table by the window, away from the chilly morning, and picked up the menu.

"This is on me. Whatever you want." Ethan stated, examining the menu slowly.

"Aww! Thank you! Megan smiled, leaned forward and gave him a peck on the cheek, which led to his cheeks turning a fiery red.

A few minutes later they had their drinks in hand and a view of a rainy day out of the window.

"So tell me what you've been up to while I've been gone." Megan leaned forward over the table, pushing a strand of her hair over her ear.

"In a nutshell, I began my journey in Violet city courtesy of Lucy, and went around the region racking up badges. I just spent a few days in Cianwood, training after I beat Chuck, and now I intend to take on Jasmine once more in hopes of getting the Mineral Badge, I believe that's what it's called?" Ethan furrowed his brow.

"Oh come on, tell me everything, all the details, all the little hiccups in your journey! I've been sitting on a bed for way too long now!" Megan frowned, leaning back in her chair.

"As you please." Ethan shrugged, putting his cup to his mouth. "This may take a while though."

"I've got nothing to do." Megan retorted, smiling once more.

* * *

Sometime later….

"That about wraps it up. I've got six Pokemon right now, soon to become five since I have to turn My Feraligatr over to Professor Elm at some point soon, and I plan on giving it one last good battle against Jasmine before I do so. Right now I've got on me Typhlosion, my first Pokemon, Scyther, my second, Feraligatr, Specter, my Gengar, Riolu and Gliscor." Ethan summed up, looking at how much space they had around them before he released Typhlosion next to his chair.

"Typhlosion, this is Megan, my other best friend. Megan meet Typhlosion."

"Aww, he looks so well taken care of, and I bet he's pretty strong if you have five badges already!" She scratched Typhlosion behind the ear and the fire type growled happily, warming up to her.

"That he is." Ethan replied, leaning back as Typhlosion lay down next to him. "So what do you want to do after this?" He asked, checking his watch. It was only ten.

"I, if you agree, want to watch you take on Jasmine." Ethan stopped the rocking motion he had going with the chair, caught off guard. Taking a moment to process it, he shrugged in reply.

"Okay."

"Wait really? You don't need to get ready or anything?" Megan sounded surprised, hands fixed to the table.

"Yeah, my Pokemon are all in top form right now, and I don't really see much point in wasting time before I battle Jasmine, so why don't you finish your muffin and we can go across the street and see if she's free."

In response, Megan scarfed down the little remainder of her muffin and stood up. Ethan picked up his copy of the receipt, having paid earlier, and walked out after her, across the street to the massive double doors that led into Jasmine's gym. Ethan wrapped his hand around the handle, smiling as he heard a small click, recalling what he had been told the last time about the door. Heaving forward, he pushed it open and walked in, holding it for Megan as she walked into the massive hall. Letting them swing shut he walked over to the receptionist's counter and pressed the little button on the bell.

The woman turned around to greet him, scrutinizing his face for a moment before she spoke.

"Hello how may I help you?" she asked, smiling faintly.

"Is Jasmine free right now or anytime soon for a battle?" Ethan asked, pulling his trainer ID out.

"She's in a battle right now, and she's free for a five badge battle right after this." The woman said, scanning his card. "Why don't you go and watch the last stretch over at the balcony. It's a seven badge battle, might be interesting."

"Thanks." Ethan replied, taking his card from her. With Megan by his side, he walked up to the balcony and stared down at the battle going on. A forty foot long Steelix, even longer than Rusty as he knew it, was coiled up on the battlefield, staring at a comparatively miniscule figure. The Machamp opposite It was battered and bruised, and looked extremely fatigued from where Ethan was standing.

With a start, it leaped forward, grabbing a hold of the Steelix's tail and swung it up. The ripple effect caused Steelix's entire body to rise piece by piece and then fall, creating a small earthquake, and by the time the ripple reached the section that was in the air, Steelix had its own reaction, using the momentum to complete a full twist and use that force to send Machamp flying into the wall.

"Better luck next time." Jasmine called out as the opponent, someone Ethan couldn't see very well, recalled his machamp. "Rusty, come back!"

Ethan's eyes widened as she recalled the massive serpent. Rusty couldn't have grown ten feet and to the caliber of a seven badge battle in a few days could it?

A young man with green hair and a thin red and black jumpsuit on came out of the elevator, Jasmine still standing at the bottom, with her phone in her hand.

"Ethan, if you could come down that would be great." Jasmine called up from the pit below, phone in her hand.

Wordlessly, and slightly apprehensive, Ethan stepped into the waiting elevator, giving Megan a wave, and went down. The elevator took a few seconds, but it reached the bottom of the fifty foot pit and let him out, onto the barren dirt battlefield with its chalk lines.

"Good to see you again." She greeted him, starting the walk to the center of the field.

"Was that Rusty?" Ethan asked, still overwhelmed.

"Rusty the first. You've only met Junior before." Jasmine replied, causing him to let out a pent up breath.

"Good to know. Will this be the same as last time?" He asked, gesturing towards her belt of pokeballs.

"One different Pokemon on my part, but yes the rest is the same. Three on three, single battle." Jasmine stated, walking over to her platform. Ethan walked over to his platform and closed the gate, his legs tense as the platform rose until he was once more level with Megan.

"Challenger releases first, no changes unless your Pokemon faints." She called out, picking a pokeball off her belt.

"Feraligatr!" Ethan picked the water type's ultra-ball off his belt and released it onto the battlefield.

"Bronzong!" Jasmine called out, releasing a large blue Pokemon that looked like it was a flattened out bell with engravings all over it and red eyes.

"Surf!" Ethan shouted, not wasting any time. Feraligatr leapt into action drawing cascades of water out of thing air to fill the floor of the arena quickly, and slam into Bronzong in waves. The psychic type, for it put up barriers which weren't actual moves, tried to defend itself, succeeding to some extent. The waves slammed into a ring of invisible barriers as Bronzong vibrated furiously, trying to keep up the shield, and it was working.

"All on one side Feraligatr!" Ethan called out after he noticed the distinctive glimmer of the shields, watching Jasmine smile.

"That won't work! Bronzong may seem to be struggling, but the shields are pretty powerful!"

"Not what I had in mind!" Ethan retorted as one massive wave slammed against the left side of the barriers, swelling up over it and surging into the hexagonal area. Ethan had noticed that there was no shield above it, and used it to his advantage. After all, shields were designed to keep things out, not in. The water cascaded into the barriers, filling it rapidly and injuring Bronzong, the levels increasing until the force of the waves from both inside and outside caused them to shatter.

Ethan wrapped his hands around the railing as Feraligatr swam swiftly through the two feet of water on the field to Bronzong, its red spikes cutting through the waterline. The psychic type saw it coming and cried out, sending a massive ripple through the water which Ethan suspected was some form of psychic attack.

The ripple went underwater and hit Feraligatr hard, dazing it and knocking it off balance. It took a moment, but Feraligatr came back up and fired off a few successive water guns at Bronzong, three of six, the last three, hitting it.

"Crunch and Brick Break!" Ethan shouted, drawing Feraligatr's attention as the third water beam hit Bronzong in the eye. The water type swam over and clamped its glowing jaws onto Bronzong's lower body, and then slammed its right arm with a rust tint to it, into Bronzong's head. The steel type made noises that sounded like a creaky bell and retaliated as fast as it could by sending a shimmering silver ball right out of its chest and onto Feraligatr's arm, causing it to lose its grip.

"Dive, repeat and dive!" Ethan called out, glancing back to Megan momentarily who was enraptured by the scene in front of her, and then to Feraligatr. The water type shot out of the water and slammed into Bronzong, then clamped its jaw down on it and slammed it deep into the water using its arm.

The two Pokemon disappeared under water for a while and the water level slowly began to rise, from two feet to three feet, four feet, and finally it stopped around five feet. Ethan frowned, trying to figure out what Feraligatr was doing by increasing the water level. The only thing that would do would increase the volume, which would in turn increase the pressure. Ethan grinned as realization dawned on him. Feraligatr would be fine underwater, but it was increasing the water pressure on Bronzong by slowly increasing the water level, and in turn making it harder for Bronzong to fight by thickening the layer of water between it and the floor, thereby taking more energy out of Bronzong simply for its levitation.

"Feraligatr, Ice Fang!" Ethan shouted, hoping Feraligatr would hear him through the water. Unfortunately, this time it didn't. However, a minute later, with the tension all pent up on the surface, it rose with a bang, flying back into the water after a minute as Bronzong unsteadily rose to the surface, levitating just above the water.

"Feraligatr! Once more, surf!" Ethan shouted, the command actually reaching Feraligatr this time. As a result of the five feet of water already occupying the field, this time when the waves came, they were massive ten foot tall once, enveloping and slamming into Bronzong repeatedly.

A blast of white light broke through one and hit Feraligatr square in the jaw, sending it careening and drifting in the water. Flash cannon.

"Feraligatr, Ice Beam!" Ethan called out, ready to set the stage for whichever Pokemon he happened to choose next. Feraligatr lashed out and shot an ice beam at Bronzong, narrowly missing and hitting the water. However, instead of cutting it off, Feraligatr put more into it and swung the beam a bit, cleverly freezing Bronzong's lower half, which was dipping into the water, in place.

Now that it had its target held in place, Feraligatr let loose with another ice beam, hitting it hard in the chest and freezing it over slowly until it was cut off by a wave of psychic energy. Bronzong broke free of the ice surrounding its lower body and sent another flash cannon in Feraligatr's direction, hitting it again.

"Feraligatr! Ice beam and Crunch!" Ethan shouted out, letting the gator freeze a good section of Bronzong's body and then Bite through the ice to multiply the pain, nearly knocking it out.

"Feraligatr! Freeze the field!" Ethan called out, letting Feraligatr speed away underwater and keep up a perpetual ice beam, freezing the water from below and then building up as Bronzong recovered its bearings. Feraligatr had frozen the last couple of inches of water right after Bronzong sent out its next attack, another narrow psychic wave like the very first one which hit Feraligatr hard, damaging its scales.

"Feraligatr! Finish this!" Ethan called, out, leaving it up to the water type. It raced across the ice towards the steel type, which was finally more at ease levitating over a solid, and slammed its water enveloped tail into it before it had a chance to react, sending it flying across the field, right to the base of Jasmine's platform, where it lay on the ice, unable to get up.

"Good job Bronzong! Return!" Jasmine called out, recalling her Pokemon.

"Feraligatr! Come back!" Ethan recalled his Pokemon waiting for Jasmine to release hers, his hand already on his next pokeball.

"Well, you've seen the one different Pokemon I have, and you can guess my next two and their order very easily, so let's see how you play with that. Skarmory!" She called out, releasing her avian onto the field.

Ethan grinned, pointing his pokeball skywards as well. It was just as he had guessed after he had seen Bronzong, Skarmory, and then undoubtedly, Rusty Junior.

"Gliscor! You're up!" He called out, staring a bit below where he was aiming the pokeball and watched as Gliscor formed in the air, diving into a glide immediately and circling the arena to get its bearings.

"Game time! Mud shot!" Ethan gestured at the wary metal bird flapping about the lower half of the arena on Jasmine's side.

Gliscor dove low, going near the surface of the arena's dirt floor. Skarmory took to the air immediately, going high up as Gliscor swooped near where it was, still moving without any particular direction or pattern. With the grace of an acrobat, Gliscor swiveled in midair and changed direction like a boomerang, heading straight around Skarmory. The surprised steel type fluttered off to the opposite side, falling victim to the same tactic. Gliscor, once nearly at level with Skarmory, pivoted again, and swung itself at the opposing Pokemon, firing its attack off at it at long last. The pressurized mud hit Skarmory hard in its thinly armored chest, pushing it back a dozen feet, nearly into the wall, and taking advantage of the situation, Gliscor continued on its current path and clamped its jaw around Skarmory's left wing. It flaming fangs started to weaken the armor and piercer through it slowly as the two struggled to remain aloft whilst entangled with each other.

Gliscor picked up its tail and tried futilely to sting Skarmory in a few places with poison sting as neither trainer made any move. Then Jasmine spoke up.

"Gliscor! Let go and fly away! Follow up with Drill Run and Ice fang!" He called out, unable to hear Jasmine's command. Skarmory dove low, using the momentum to rise high up into the arena again, to a height of nearly seventy feet from the floor of the arena, twenty feet above where Ethan and Jasmine were standing. Gliscor circled warily around the arena, its bright yellow eyes fixated on Skarmory.

"Mory now!" Jasmine shouted, pointing her finger forward.

Skarmory dashed down and Ethan clenched his fists in prayer as he recognized the attack. Endeavour dealt back all the damage that had been done to the user in one fell swoop, a very effective tool for Pokemon on the brink of collapse. Perplexingly however, Skarmory looked ok, a bit dinged up and annoyed, maybe a bit tired, but nowhere near where Pokemon usually used Endeavour.

Gliscor charged forward, ready to meet Skarmory in the air, spiraling faster and faster as it initiated Drill Run. Ethan watched the two Pokemon near each other, his heart beating rapidly, until they nearly collided head on. The persisting tornado enveloping Gliscor was keeping Skarmory half a foot from it, fixed in the air with its eerie blue glow surrounding it, each Pokemon trying to push the other back or break its attack.

Ethan watched as Skarmory dipped its head a little and his eyes widened, having watched what he guessed was the same tactic in a particularly brutal battle a year prior in the Silver Conference.

"Gliscor! Down!" Ethan shouted as loud as he could, hoping Gliscor's sharp ears could pick his voice up over the din of the wind. Skarmory did indeed dip lower, letting the slip stream flip it over until it was on top of Gliscor, and using its entire body it pushed down through the tornado, just as Gliscor relented and dove lower, allowing Skarmory to flip a full three sixty, something it hadn't intended to do. Just as the steel type was regaining its bearings, Gliscor bit it from behind with freezing jaws, right where the layers of metal folded over each other and left ice in between, letting go.

Gliscor dove low as with every single movement, Skarmory screeched from pain with the ice stuck between its armor. Ethan grinned, but then put his mind to thinking, knowing the ice would melt very quickly now.

"Gliscor! Mud shot and drill run again!" He instructed, letting the ground type take stock of the situation and fire its attack off at a very slowly moving opponent, clipping its left wing and causing it to lose its balance.

In an instant, Gliscor charged, hitting it with drill run. Ethan's eyes widened as he noticed the blue glow around Skarmory again, and he cringed as it slammed its beak into the stationary ground type holding it against the wall.

Gliscor's pincers opened enough for Skarmory to squeeze out and flutter about the arena as the indigo flyer plummeted a few feet before it regained its balance. The two avians circled, Skarmory's wings strained by the weight of its metallic body in its current state of fatigue.

"Gliscor! End this with Drain Punch! You can do it!" Ethan shouted, praying silently that the move wouldn't backfire on him.

Gliscor dipped lower and circled beneath Skarmory, not bothering to keep its eye out above it, rather observing the shadows under it, cast by the massive lights embedded in the ceiling. Skarmory stayed up above, wary of what might come to be, but after a minute dove, knowing that one way or another, this matchup was going to end pretty quickly.

It plummeted gracelessly, looking more like a pile of scrap metal in the air than a bird of prey with its beak pointed towards Gliscor and its wings haphazardly shifting the dynamic of its fall. A white outline surrounded Skarmory's body this time, thin and tangible as it fixed its form, now a sleek silver needle. Gliscor rose to meet it, pincers at the ready, and in an instant, Skarmory's beak met Gliscor's pincer, and its tail went around Skarmory's neck, flinging it down to the ground after the attack had finished draining Skarmory of what little energy it had left.

"Mory! Return!" Jasmine called out, recalling her collapsed fighter. "That was one way to end it."

"Gliscor! You were amazing! Get some rest!" Ethan spoke, recalling his own Pokemon. "Consider Gliscor out. I'm not putting a Pokemon on the brink of collapse through more, especially when more is Rusty."

"A wise decision. I won't bother to introduce you two, since you seem to remember him very well." Jasmine called out, releasing her final companion onto the field.

Once more, just like the last time, a massive rush of air left the arena as Rusty formed on the field, a thirty foot long steel serpent capable of dealing a good bit of damage to its surroundings, if not destroying them. The gym itself was built to be Pokemon proof. After all, what good would a Pokemon gym which couldn't withstand a battle be?

"Just like last time. Come on out buddy! It's time for a rematch!" Ethan's lip stretched into a smile as he picked his oldest companion's pokeball off his belt and pointed it down towards the arena, pressing the button on the front. A thin beam of red light left the center of the ultra-ball, coalescing into Typhlosion's form. The fire type stood up, its greenish navy back towards Ethan.

"No time to waste! Start up with Flame Charge!" He ordered, watching confidently as Typhlosion sheathed itself in flames and then charged recklessly towards Rusty's coiled up body.

The steel type watched apprehensively, letting it approach for the sake of not burning itself by deterring Typhlosion. That was where its mistakes began. Typhlosion's flames were a bright, eye searing yellow, and while it was a smart decision to avoid burning itself by deterring it for Rusty, it wasn't a wise one, for it allowed Typhlosion a clear path to use that attack or simply switch to another more effective one.

"Typhlosion, all the way up to the head!" Ethan called out as with a great leap, Typhlosion avoided Rusty's swinging tail and hit its body, charging up it and letting its flames do the work for it as it rose higher and higher up onto Rusty's body.

"Rusty! Crush it!" Jasmine called out, and although in pain, Rusty coiled up its tail behind Typhlosion as quickly as it could with losing its balance to crush the fire type charging out of sight towards its head.

"Switch to lava plume and follow up by going back into Flame charge, with brick break!" Ethan shouted, stringing together the attacks so as to not give Jasmine time to react while he instructed Typhlosion. Ethan watched Typhlosion's flames go out and its momentum fall dramatically until lava spurted out of its back, serving the dual purpose of giving it a boost and of course landing all over and burning Rusty's body.

Typhlosion continued on with its path, keeping it start strong as it once more wreathed itself in flames and crashed into the hollow behind the Steelix's jaw, burning it as its own force let it stay there for a moment, before it slammed a paw into it and angled itself to land on its feet and retreat when it hit the ground.

Rusty reared in pain, evidently injured more than last time with one sequence, and severely irritated. Ethan's grin turned into a frown as Rusty uncoiled itself and reared, something it hadn't done last time.

"Rusty! Now!" Jasmine shouted, loud enough so that anyone anywhere in the gym could hear her. Ethan clutched his ringing ears for a second as Rusty leaped into the air of all things and then dove down, its winding body following it as it burrowed into the earth.

Ethan watched the dust settle nervously to see a large hole and no Rusty. Typhlosion was on all fours, as wary as he was and ready to run. Not a sound was heard throughout the entire arena until with a huge upset, Rusty burst forth from the ground and narrowly missed Typhlosion, who had scampered off to the left. Immediately Rusty returned to the ground and disappeared once more, leaving three holes in the ground.

"Typhlosion, lava plume, slow dry and quick dry!" Ethan shouted out, chewing on his lower lip as his eyes focused on his Pokemon, which was quickly pouring two types of lava down the holes, the first to injure Rusty and the second to seal of the holes to sound and light by cooling quickly. "Blind him with solar beam when he comes up!"

Jasmine's frown was visible from across the stadium as she cupped her hands and called out. "Rusty up now before it can attack!"

Moments passed and nothing happened, leaving the Maiden of Steel perplexed as her Pokemon stayed underground, planning its attack. Rusty was unaware of any commands, the stone having made it much harder for sound to get through, and Jasmine was unaware that of what Ethan had done, though he was willing to bet she would soon figure out.

Typhlosion stood at the ready with a glowing white orb in its mouth, waiting. A few more moments passed, and then with a great upheaval, the dirt a few feet away from Typhlosion was torn up and tossed into the air as Rusty exited at a high speed to dive onto Typhlosion. The attack however, ended up a failure, as a result of Typhlosion pointing its solar beam right where the Steelix came up and blinding it. Rusty fell mid jump and collapsed onto its side from the blinding light, having just come out of the darkness of its freshly created, (Or old, he didn't really know) subterranean network.

"Now! Flamethrower, lava plume and Focus Blast!" Ethan called out, watching as Typhlosion mercilessly attacked the Steelix, dealing more and more damage to it with every blow. Flamethrower did a good number to it, as did Lava plume, but Focus Blast really unhinged it and tipped the scaled heavily in Typhlosion's favor.

Rusty slammed a glowing white tail into Typhlosion and sent the fire type flying into the wall, and in that Ethan saw one thing. Typhlosion could deal a lot of damage to and even take down Rusty, but Rusty was by far more powerful in terms of brute force, which was its main tool.

"Typhlosion! Flame charge and Focus Blast!" Ethan called out as it rose again. "Let's finish this!"

Typhlosion rose to its feet and charged towards Steelix, wreathed in completely white flames as Steelix opened its own maw, glowing white. Letting the flames burn it, Typhlosion fired off one last glowing brick red sphere at Steelix as the hyper beam left its mouth.

Ethan winced as each attack met its mark and both Pokemon collapsed, kicking up a lot of dust. Once it cleared, he recalled his Pokemon, watching Jasmine recall her own.

"I want to commend you Ethan! You've certainly improved a lot since you last fought me! You've earned victory this time, and the Mineral Badge! Come to the elevator and we'll go to the stamping and badge room together!" She called out, clapping for a second as her platform descended.

Ethan flipped the switch on his own platform, waiting patiently as it descended far slowly until it reached the ground, Jasmine only a dozen feet away, having reached first. He walked over to the glass elevator and stepped in, closing the door behind Jasmine. She reached out and pressed the button with one hand, the other fixing a loose braid in her hair. Another minute passed and they were at the top of the gym once more.

The door opened and Jasmine stepped out, finally tying her hair up once more with an orange band. Ethan had felt more than a little cramped in the elevator with Jasmine's arms flailing about behind her trying to fix the braid of honey-ish brown hair.

Ethan followed her out, taking a deep breath as Megan approached them. She walked up to him and punched him in the chest before she hugged him.

"Thanks." Ethan laughed, noting how Jasmine was watching amusedly.

"Come with me, I don't tend to keep the badges on my person since my dresses don't really have pockets and I can't keep the stamping machine down in the battlefield anyway." She explained, gesturing at the sky blue knee length dress she was wearing and her white jacket.

She led the two of them to another set of steel doors, similar to the entrance, except far smaller, and equipped with a fingerprint scanner. She pressed her entire hand into it and waited a moment until the doors unlocked. With a mighty heave, she swung them open and stepped into a well-lit room with a glass roof and walls, overlooking the meadows behind Olivine, maybe a hundred feet below them. Sitting against the back wall was a machine the size of a car, which he felt resembled a massive printer.

"Come on, let's get you decked out with a badge and an engraving, and put you down in our books. Can I see your card?" Jasmine asked, walking ahead of them.

Ethan pulled it out and tossed it over to Jasmine, the latter deftly snatching it out of the air as she approached the printer. Ethan picked up the pace, walking up to the machine with Megan by his side. Jasmine turned the machine on and fed his card into it, typing in a few things as the machine spurred to life. It looked like a printer, and it sounded like one too. A minute later, while it sounded like it was scanning a document and printing something at the same time, a little metal flap retracted, revealing a cavity where Ethan thought for a moment paper would come out. It was certainly wide enough.

Paper did come out. It turned out that the machine actually did print things, just not the things Ethan needed. Jasmine took the sheet and put it in an out tray next to the machine as the noise died down. A small tray opened up and pushed out of the side of the machine, containing Ethan's card and a small grey octagonal badge rimmed in silver.

Ethan picked up his card and the badge, taking in the look of the latter, and put them away in his pocket, a wide grin stretched across his face as he felt the cold metal through the pockets of his jeans.

"Have a good day Ethan, and I wish you success on the rest of-" Jasmine was cut off by a sharp beeping sound coming from her watch. She glanced at it and frowned, turning back to Ethan.

"IF you could see yourself out that would be great. I was going to say I wish you success on the rest of your journey, but I got cut off. Something's come up. As I said, have a good day." Jasmine walked swiftly out of the room, leaving Ethan utterly perplexed.

Megan began walking out towards the exit, and startled, Ethan followed, unsure of how to react to Jasmine's abrupt cutoff, and wondering what could have the gym leader of one of the biggest cities in Johto worried. Once they were out of the doors and in the open air again, Megan spoke up.

"You were awesome! You really know how to work with your Pokemon well at this point don't you!" Megan smiled, wrapping one arm through his.

"Thanks. It's been a long road to get to this point, but looking back it seems like just yesterday I was in New Bark Town." Ethan sighed, glancing at the noon sky before turning back to Megan.

"MY aunt and my cousins are home now, and they want me to have lunch with them, so why don't you come with me." Megan suggested as Ethan checked his phone for messages, finding one. He quickly scrolled through it after he checked the sender and then looked up again at Megan.

"Sorry, I have to meet someone, but I can meet up with you later if you want." He shrugged apologetically as Megan frowned momentarily, thinking about what to do.

"Okay, how about this, send me a message when you're done with anything that I can't be there for and then I'll come find you." She offered, crossing her arms.

"Frankly there's nothing you can't be there for. Just text me whenever you're free and I'll tell you where I am." Ethan proposed, raising an eyebrow.

"Sure. Walk me back though will you?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course. If I didn't that would just be outright rude." Ethan smiled, setting off with her.

* * *

An hour later…

Ethan walked back up to the café by the gym, having re-read Steven's message a few times. He looked around the open inside until he found Steven dressed in a grey and white T shirt and khaki shorts rather than his usual suit, and walked through the tables to him quickly, drawing out the chair and sitting down.

"Well how's your day been so far?" Ethan asked, leaning forward.

"I've been fine. But I something's about. There's a fleet of Kaloasian ships about a day away. Battleships. Things aren't working out well between Kalos and the Unified Territories, specifically Almia. I'd rather get out of town by tomorrow morning if you can." Steven was frowning. "I've talked it over with Lance, and while I'll lend my intellect to them, I can't join in the chaos which will undoubtedly unfold tomorrow. Lance was the one who put it up first, but I shouldn't drag Hoenn into this mess just yet."

"I can understand that… Politically speaking." Ethan added, tapping his fingers along the rim of the table. "I'm done in Olivine City as it is, I have Jasmine's gym badge, and I'm ready to get going."

"That's good…. Let's switch to lighter topics shall we? I've a plan that since the fighting is about to ensue here, we take my underwater vessel, I don't really know If I can call it a submarine, to New Bark and travel north of Blackthorn from there." Steven pulled a map out of his pocket and traced the route out with his finger.

"That sounds good to me." Ethan shrugged. "My next destination would have been either Blackthorn or Mahogany town anyway. And I get to stop at home, something I meant to try and work into my schedule."

"Perfect. How about we go see the vessel, I think you'll find it… different… Then we can get some lunch." Steven suggested, standing up. "It's about a ten minute ride from here if you have a bike. If you don't rent one from the Pokemon center because I'm going to say leave your stuff in the vessel for now."

"I've got one, which is a street down. I'll meet you back here in five minutes." Ethan agreed, standing up and walking out.

It took him just that, five minutes, to get to the Pokemon center and ride back on his bike. He found Steven waiting outside the café perched on a sleek silver bike with a black decal.

"Let's go." Steven pushed off, pedaling fast, and headed off towards the outskirts of the city, following a dirt path into the woods. Ethan kept up behind him the whole time, for about ten minutes, passing a ranger or two, until they came to a stop at an inlet large enough to be a small lake and too deep for Ethan to see the bottom. What he could see in it however, was a sleek black fighter plane like vehicle without wings in the water.

It looked like someone had taken two fuselages from a Lockheed Martin Blackbird, used one as a fuselage, cut the other one down the middle the long way and attached the two sides, shrunken a bit, to the main body, about five feet away. But it looked insane. The whole thing was about 60 feet long in total.

"This is the Nautilus. It's named after the one in the book. This is what I used to get here from Hoenn, and this isn't what I'll use to get back, mainly because I plan on sending it back from New Bark with its current pilot to test the auto pilot, because it goes pretty deep. There'll be an aircraft following it at all times to keep an eye on it though. In any case, it goes about fifty miles an hour at maximum cruising depth. What do you think?" Steven asked, turning to him with his arms crossed.

"It's amazing. Did you work on the design?" Ethan turned to him as he released Metagross to unscrew a massive hatch.

"That I did. Not too much, but I did do some of it." Steven replied. "Pass me the bags Metagross."

Ethan's bags rose into the air and glided over to the hatch, going down them and through another hatch Ethan could see before Steven climbed back out of the first hatch and secured them both, jumping the three feet to land once more. "Let's get going shall we?"

They set off for the main port after Ethan typed out a quick reply to Megan's texts, taking a leisurely ride through for a quarter of an hour until they reached the port. They biked down to the cobbled market street and pedaled slowly through the pedestrians back to the open front of the café where they had met, and sure enough Megan was sitting at table, waiting.

Ethan disembarked his bike and walked over to her, Steven walking behind him with a pleasant smile on his face. He pulled a chair out and sat down, picking up the menu and skimming through it.

"How was lunch?" Ethan asked, setting it down once more.

"Lunch was good. What have you been-" Megan stopped abruptly as the scraping of a chair against the floor drew her attention to Steven, who had pulled out the third chair at the small table. Her face paled for a moment and her eyes filled with recognition. Her mouth remained clamped shut for another minute before she finally spoke.

"You're-" She began.

"I am. I'd rather keep it quiet a bit right now for those who haven't recognized me and do have the courage to come up and interject in the midst of my own affairs." He responded with a small smile, raising his hand to call a waitress.

"How do you know Ethan? Or rather, Ethan, how do you know him!?" She asked, completely befuddled.

"That's my own story. I knew his father when I was serving a year here as part of every Ace Trainer's year abroad for training. Our paths crossed in Golden Rod City and I offered to polish his skills." Steven explained briefly, quickly ordering something to eat.

Ethan placed his own order, and Megan simply asked for a cup of coffee as the conversation went on.

"You've certainly been up to a lot." She remarked casually after a minute, taking it all in. "How rude of me! I'm Megan."

"Nice to meet you."

"That I have. I mean I did tell you everything that's happened since I left New Bark." Ethan shrugged and picked up a glass of water.

All of a sudden an earth shattering scream rang out from the port. Once, twice, thrice. Ethan stood up, rushing out the entrance of the café, Steven and Megan not far behind. A woman stood in the center of a shifting crowd, clearly the person who had screamed for she had her arm extended, pointing towards the ocean, and everyone was following her line of sight. The air was shimmering, a distortion fading out of existence to reveal what was actually happening.

Approaching the bay were maybe twenty massive warships lined with wood to look like sailing ships, but with their weapons in plain view. Men in white uniforms with gold and orange trimmings, naval officers Ethan presumed, stood near the prows of the ships. Flying at full mast in the light breeze were massive orange banners with a golden emblem on them, the shape of a region with a tower super imposed upon them, and words in a language Ethan vaguely recognized in a gold circle around them. The Kaloasian Flag.

Ethan saw the lips of the captain of the foremost and central ship open, and even though he couldn't hear him, he could have sworn he heard the word ringing in his head: Fire.

All hell broke loose as canons fired for the effect, and missiles were launched in the confusion from the empty canon blasts. Streams of fire spewed from the prow of each ship, licking the nearest vessels as the Pokemon came on deck to supplement the attack.

Ethan felt two arms jerk on his and he snapped back to reality, seeing Steven pulling him and the bikes, and Megan holding onto his arm. He clambered onto his bike, pulling Megan on behind him and started pedaling as fast as he could as Steven kept up the rear. He heard him roar one word over the din of the shots: Nautilus. So he pedaled as fast as he could, all the way to the outskirts of the city and to the earlier entrance to the woods, where he took Megan to the Nautilus followed by Steven behind him. He could hear his heart beating, and he could hear every explosion, or every missile impact, and every canon shot, along with something along the lines of feedback in the background.

As they rode into the woods, everything quietened down, a few faint echoes of the noise in the city still audible, but to Ethan now only his racing heart and the leaves being crunched under his bike's tires were audible. It took them less time than before to reach the inlet, where they disembarked, Steven setting to work, reaching for his pokeballs and dialing someone on his phone.

Metagross was out in a flash and the hatches were unscrewed, and one by one, all three of them got in, and then it was sealed and Metagross was back in its pokeball. Steven was off the phone at this point and the Nautilus was already running, parts whirring to life, and seemingly running on their own.

The inside was amazing, a roof not too low, but not particularly high with lights embedded in it ran the length of the central corridor, with lockable retracting doors in the curved walls along the way. The corridor led all the way to the front of the ship, where it ended before what was the bridge. It was a room beyond double glass doors taking up the entire width of the front, all the way to the peaked nose, and large enough that it was fairly open, housing a massive control panel right below the window running from one end to the other, two computer control tables, one on each side, in sunken areas, and a central pilots seat, with a desk like dash in front of it, everything sunken slightly below its level.

The person sitting in the captain's seat, steering the Nautilus out of the inlet stood up once they were out and going straight on a few minutes later, shocking Ethan.

"What happened up there?" Blake demanded, crossing her arms as she addressed Steven.

"The Kaloasian navy used masking tactics to trick us into thinking they would get here tomorrow but they just attacked the port. We're leaving for New Bark. I'm sorry if I'm dragging you out that far Megan, but it's not safe in Olivine. My opinion, and most likely the final decision, is that you Ethan, will take a day to get your family and everything you want to take with you onboard and we'll leave for Hoenn. IF there's someone anywhere along the way they can stay in, perhaps in Unova, which I know will stay neutral, we can drop them off there, and otherwise I can set them up in Hoenn." He summarized grimly.

"Wait, what?" Ethan started, standing straight as he looked at Steven in disbelief.

Sighing, the older man responded. "Indigo isn't safe anymore. Kalos attacked us because we sided with Almia and the league and the league already put it to a pass with the senate. They're declaring war. Things are worse than they seem." He sighed once more. "I'm going to draw up our route to Hoenn, see if there's anywhere along the way your family would rather stay. As for you Megan, we can drop you off in New Bark if you have relatives there, or we can try and figure something out."

"Hoenn's fine. I was going to New Bark anyway to collect some things and return to my mother there." She replied almost mechanically as Ethan examined the route.

"Nimbasa City. My sister lives there." Ethan put his finger on the map, looking at Steven.

"Then it's settled. We'll stop in Nimbasa for fueling and continue on to Mossdeep." Steven nodded to Blake.

"While I won't argue with you, I'm going to ask, isn't there any way we could stay in Indigo?" Ethan asked almost pleadingly.

"Frankly, there isn't. Besides. I'm not risking letting anything I can prevent happen to you. There are a few things I should probably tell you about your father, that can't really stay in the dark anymore. The first and foremost of them is that he wasn't just any ordinary solider. And the second is that I was with him in the battle where he….." Steven stopped for a moment, his eyes glazing over. "If I had just been stronger, maybe I could have saved him."


	13. Champions and Their Ways

**Chapter 13: Champions and Their Ways**

 **A/N: So. This might not come out at the time I planned. Because the weekend I had time to write this (14/10-17/10), I got stuck with two major papers, three major tests and some homework. Review Replies:**

 **ThalTair: Thank you. That whole outbreak of war was something I've had planned since I conceived the idea of this story, and I was so overjoyed when I finally got to this pivotal point in the story. And secondly, I sincerely hope you meant "who is Ethan's dad?", which is a question which will be answered along the course of the story, but if you actually meant to say Ash, then I have no idea how to respond, especially considering this is in game/manga (adventures) universe where Ash doesn't exist/isn't cannon.**

 **Anyway, enjoy**

* * *

Steven stopped for a moment, his eyes glazing over. "If I had just been stronger, maybe I could have saved him."

Ethan stopped moving, not a sound forming in his throat as he stared at Steven, unable to process what he had just said. His gold eyes fixed themselves onto a point on Steven's head, his gaze focused enough to bore a hole through it. Steven himself stood with his hands down on the table, his head hanging.

"What did they tell you about how he lost his life?" Steven asked after a few minutes passed like this.

"They told us that he was hit in the head with a Drapion's poison sting in the Battle at Mount Silver." Ethan clenched his jaws as Steven looked him in the eyes.

"Well at least they didn't lie." He sighed. "Right now I'm going to give you the short version, then there's something we need to take care of before I give you every detail. I was in his unit, under his tutelage at the time. The rest of the unit was either gone or unable to fight. We were fighting on a plateau near the middle of the mountain, and it was myself and your father against two others. Just us four left. The fight was dragging on, and it was going to end soon. But while I was running to his side, he got hit in the chest by Drapion's tail. I got Aggron to tangle with Drapion while I kept the other two at bay. Aggron and I weren't strong enough. I tried to take the hit for him. I still have the scar. With his last breath he called upon a Pokemon I didn't even know he had. It slaughtered them while I lost consciousness from taking some of the poison. Then it disappeared." Steven summed up, staring Ethan in the eyes. "It still haunts me to this day."

Ethan stared blankly at him, ready to break down beneath the calm as memories flooded into his mind of the time he had spent with his father. Finally, chokingly, he managed to utter the thought that had formed in his head.

"It's not your fault." With it a light weight lifted off of Ethan's chest, Steven staring at him.

"I've a lot to tell you. But first there are things that need to be done." He stepped away from the counter and pulled a bulky phone out of the wall, handing it to Megan, who was simply standing to one side of them. "This should let you reach any relatives you may have just left in Olivine."

Megan took it with a small nod and walked out into the hallway, the glass doors sliding shut behind her.

"Follow me to my room Ethan, I think its best we get this done quickly. We'll be in New Bark in forty five minutes." Steven gestured towards the hallway, leading Ethan out and down the corridor to a door on the left side the way they were walking, near the bridge. He pressed his thumb into the pad by the door and it slid into the wall, its contours matching perfectly.

The room itself was nice, if lacking a personal touch. There was a massive curved window making up the outside wall, and Ethan could see a panel right above it which undoubtedly slid down and sealed it when Steven wanted it to be sealed. A low, head or foot-board less bed was parked against the right wall, the door touching the corner of the left one. Right next to them the wall's inward curve was reflected once more, with a desk built into it. The theme of the room was grey, the carpets, the desk, the bed with some white thrown in. Mounted opposite the bed was a black rimmed TV, with bookshelves built into the walls on both sides and a console below it.

Steven walked around to the desk, opening the computer with its large screen in the wall and logged on. He ran through a complex series of locks before he opened a simple program for video calling. Pressing a contact with his mother's name on it, he waited. Ethan stood next to him, watching as a ringer appeared and ticked for a few seconds. All of a sudden his mother's face filled the screen, against a backdrop of the living room couch and a wall covered in photos.

"Steven, it's a bit early to check in on us again isn't it?" She asked pleasantly, then she saw Ethan. "What's going on?"

"Why I'm with Ethan in the first place is a different story, but first the grave things. Melissa I say this, and I am serious: Kalos has declared war. Olivine city is under attack. I'm on my way out in my submarine to New Bark with Ethan and a friend of his who's headed to Hoenn."

"Indigo is no longer safe. It's in a state of war. Lucy is in Unova, and it's on the way to Hoenn. I'll in New Bark soon, in forty minutes. Get Lily and start packing. I need to get you out of here. I'll explain properly once we're on route." Steven summed up, leaving Ethan's mother in a state of shock.

"I… I… I'll get to it." She managed to get out, nodding quickly at Steven after a minute.

"Pack everything you want to pack. Just shove it in boxes and bags if you need too. It's a war. We don't know how long it's going to last. We have more than enough space." Steven urged, cutting the call only once she had nodded in agreement again.

"I want to know everything. Get my mother's permission to tell me if you need to but I want to know everything." Ethan stated, speaking up once more when the line was out. Steven turned to him and looked at him, trying to find his wits for a moment.

"I will. I promise I will. It might be easier to do it after we've dropped your family in Unova, which is less than a day's journey away. By the time we reach Hoenn, you'll know everything, and I'll have educated you in other relevant details." Steven branched off. "And don't think that my offer to train you isn't valid anymore. I want you to come to Hoenn with me. Travel when I'm busy and train with me when I'm not."

Ethan stopped right outside the doorway, staring at Steven, who had noticed after walking a dozen feet.

"Something the matter?" He inquired, a bead of sweat on his forehead the only indication that he was anything but calm.

"It didn't really register that I was to go to Hoenn with you and still do the whole apprentice thing. I figured when we were plotting course that I would stay in Unova with my family." Ethan remarked quietly, walking once more and following Steven as they walked back to the bridge.

"That is, if you want to. You've got maybe fourteen and a half hours once we leave New Bark to decide." Steven told him, walking through the glass doors to the bridge again, where Megan was standing near Blake in her pilot's chair.

"Blake, how far are we from New Bark?" Steven asked, checking a set of clocks embedded in the walls.

"About ten minutes. I can set anchor south of Tohjo, but I can't take the Nautilus further than that. The inlet in New Bark isn't showing up as big enough on the map." She replied, handling the controls expertly as they sailed through the ocean, not so deep and able to see quite a bit of their surroundings.

"Excuse me, this shouldn't present itself as a problem, but I'm going to need to get off in Unova with Ethan's family." Megan interjected, speaking up.

"What happened?" Ethan asked questioningly, turning towards her.

"My grandfather's brother, my great uncle, is in Unova, under equal care to my own grandfather's, and while they've had their spats, they want to reconcile, and doctors decided the Unovian climate was better for the both of them than Hoenn's." she sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"Well then…." He shifted slightly as he felt the ship slow down and come to a stop.

"So… You may have a few minutes more of a trek to New Bark. You're going to need to tell me when to surface when you're here with whatever it is that you're bringing on board." Blake laughed weakly as a massive cream colored serpentine body wound around the front of the ship, flashing its rainbow scaled tail at them and disappearing again. "Don't panic. That's my Milotic."

"Let's get up there. The sooner we're on our way the better." Steven stated uneasily as the ship rose, breaching the water's surface. Once the hatch was above water level, not that it needed to be, it was just easier, Steven opened them both and clambered out, sealing it behind the trio. Ethan squinted in the light, smelling the ocean spray all around.

To their left, about fifty meters away, was the coastline with the forest's edge on it. Ethan couldn't see where the ocean turned in towards the little lake next to Mount Tohjo, but judging by the mountain's position he knew where they were.

"Can Metagross ferry you guys across the water? I can get us there faster if we can go straight down to the forest." Ethan suggested, pointing towards the trees.

"You guys go on Metagross's back, I'll ride Skarmory. If we can go above the trees that would be great." Steven remarked, releasing his Pokemon. The second Metagross was out, Steven's silver eyes began to glow for a second, and then the glow died out.

Ethan clambered onto Metagross's back and helped Megan on, pointing in the direction they needed to go as Steven mounted Skarmory, his grey and white t-shirt blending in against Skarmory's back as he lay flat on the bird, chest down. It took them maybe two minutes at the rate they were moving to get all the way across the forest to the edge of New Bark. They were a minute's walk from his house.

Steven took the lead on Skarmory, guiding Metagross straight to the house over the heads of the gawking people of New Bark Town. The steel types set them down in Ethan's yard and were immediately recalled. Not bothering to knock, Ethan opened the front door, knowing it would be open. Stepping inside he looked around to see a good bit of the house already packed up, boxes of pictures and books, and other things that were to be taken already piled up in the lounge. Cupping his hands around his mouth he called out.

"MOM I'M HOME!" He hollered, hearing a hurried noise upstairs. A second later his mother and his little sister rushed downstairs, the former hugging him and the latter clutching his leg.

"Ethan! You need to tell us what's going on!" She chided him, letting go.

"I'll tell you once we're on our way. I'm going to go to professor elm to return something and then I'll help you pack up." He explained, wrapping his arms around her once more as Steven shifted in the background.

"Ok honey. Be safe!" She called out as he started jogging towards the large house turned into a lab in the North West corner of New Bark town, not too far from where his own house was. He ran through the mess of red leaves on the streets until he reached the whitewashed building, with its staircase around the side to the professor's residence.

Ethan walked up to the front door and knocking twice, walked in. The lab was in its usual state, the reception counter calm and quiet in the lobby and the actual lab space in chaos behind the open doors. Looking around at the room where he had stood so long ago to receive his first Pokemon, he went to the receptionist's desk and rang the little bell on the counter. A minute later a local girl a few years older than Ethan wearing a white blouse and navy skirt came to the desk, holding a pen and a notebook.

"How can I help you today?" She asked with a smile, having to look up at Ethan given her short stature.

"Can you tell Professor Elm that Ethan Photon's here to see him. It's urgent, about a Totodile." Ethan explained as the girl jotted it down in her notebook and scurried off to the lab space. A minute or two later she emerged with a balding, wiry man with brown hair and wire rimmed spectacles at her heels.

"Ethan! You didn't have to come all the way back to New Bark you know! You could have just transferred the Pokemon over to me." Elm fixed his glasses on his nose and crossed his arms.

"Let me say goodbye to him." Ethan said, choking slightly as he picked Feraligatr's ultra-ball off of his belt and released the Pokemon into the lobby.

An incandescent red beam left the pokeball without any direction and coalesced into the form of Feraligatr, leaving the scaly blue water type standing next to Ethan. Ethan wrapped his arms around Feraligatr's neck as high up as he could reach and pulled him close, the gesture reciprocated as well as Feraligatr could.

"Buddy… I just want to say thank you for being one of the best companions I could ask for. I'm going to miss you." Ethan fell silent, a few tears rolling down his cheeks slowly as Feraligatr let out a rumbling noise, patting Ethan on the back and letting go.

"Take good care of him Professor." Ethan spoke determinedly, tapping his ID to the ultra-ball and then activating the release sequence. "He's taken good care of me, don't let him be ill-treated. Goodbye buddy." Ethan patted Feraligatr on the back once more and then turned around to walk out of the building, tears streaming down his face. He stopped in the doorway, and without looking back, spoke once more.

"I thought I'd let you know in case the news hasn't already gotten around the region, or to you yet. Kaloasian ships laid siege to Olivine's harbor about an hour ago."

With that Ethan walked out, closing the door behind him.

* * *

Ethan walked up to the pile of things lying by the house, a ton of boxes and bags, organized by what was needed immediately and what was to go into storage. His mother stepped out of the house, locking the doors. He had pulled down all the shutters earlier and cleaned out the yard one more time while his mother checked to see if there was anything they had left behind which they needed. Lily was clinging to his leg tightly, staring at the closed up house. It was going to take a while to explain to her why they were leaving so suddenly, but she was content with visiting Lucy.

"That'll be all. How many trips will it take?" She asked, slipping the keys into her bag.

"Just the one." Steven replied with a wry grin, the first time he had smiled since they had left Olivine. "Metagross!"

Ethan felt an odd sensation of weightlessness as Metagross lifted him into the air along with Megan and all the things so that his mother and Lily could sit on its back. Steven was already in the air, having mounted Skarmory a few minutes prior. He shot off towards the Nautilus, arriving ahead of them and opening the latch. It took just a few shorts minutes to get the things into the ship and down into the cargo hold, Lily and his mother staring at the inside of the ship in awe the whole while.

Once Steven was back with them and had sealed the latches and taken them to the bridge, the conversation broke out again.

"This is Blake, a close friend and my co-pilot for this journey. We'll be dropping you guys off in Nimbasa whilst we refuel. It's about 7200 miles from here to Mossdeep in Hoenn, which is our final destination, and 1000 to Nimbasa. Going at about fifty, that should take us under a day to get to Nimbasa, and five more to reach Hoenn." Steven explained, gesturing at Blake, who turned around to face them once they were cruising out into open waters and were on a relatively simple course to Unova.

"Nice to meet you Blake. I'm Melissa and this is my daughter Lily. I take it you've already met Ethan." She remarked dryly, turning to them.

"That I have." Blake confirmed, turning back to the control panel.

"Let's get you guys oriented with the ship." Steven suggested, steering them out and into the hallway, where he showed them the kitchen and the small lounge and library, and then their rooms. Ethan's things were already set aside in a room, and whilst there were six rooms, his mother had chosen to have Lily stay with her in the ship.

"Great, now I need to go get permission to dock in Nimbasa, so why don't you guys find something to do? Melissa you can come with me, for now, there are a few things that need to be mapped out anyway… The rest of the ship is open to you guys, though I wouldn't suggest going in the engine room. Feel free to whip up something in the kitchen or lounge about or whatnot. I'll open the bridge doors once all's clear." Steven stated, walking off in the direction of the bridge.

Ethan shrugged and turned to Lily, crouching down to her level.

"What do you want to do Lily? Do you want to play a game?" He asked, smiling for her.

"Yes. Let's get some cards and play go fish!" She smiled, grabbing his hand and walking towards the room where they his things had been set down and he dug around his bag until he found a pack of cards. Megan followed them, closing the door behind her and sat down, joining in for the time being.

"What d0 you think Steven meant, things that need to be mapped out?" She whispered in his ear, sitting down next to him.

"I'm going to say telling her that he's going to tell me whatever else there is to tell me." Ethan replied, shifting slightly. "For now though, let's just focus on keeping ourselves occupied."

* * *

Meanwhile, in the bridge…

"Now that everything is done and settled, please tell me what's going on? Why's Ethan with you? I know that he ran into you in Goldenrod and you gave him one of his Pokemon but I don't know anything else." She crossed her arms and sat down in a chair to one side of the bridge.

"What he probably didn't mention then, because he hadn't made up his mind, is that I offered to take him under my wing, or train him. We were planning to circle back to New Bark anyway in a day or two, then travel in northern Johto, where the remaining two badges are for him anyway. Then Kaloasian ships attacked the harbor, and I grabbed the two of them and we fled. I can't let anything happen to him, not when I wasn't strong enough to protect Nicolas." Steven looked down at the floor.

"It wasn't your fault Steven." Melissa sighed, looking at him. "What do you have planned for him now then?"

"He's already expressed that he wishes to go down the same path Nicolas went, into the ranks of the ace trainers and hopefully further someday. I'm proposing that I take him with me to Hoenn and I train him there and let him travel when I'm tangled up with the mess that's bound to ensue. And I want to tell him everything." Steven added hesitantly, looking her in the eye.

A few minutes passed in silence, Melissa simply staring through the window into the dark depths off the ocean. Finally, with a sigh she replied.

"You have my leave to take him to Hoenn… And to tell him everything about Nicolas. He may as well have more pride in him than he already does." With that she crossed her arms and stood straight. "If that's all I'd like to retire to my room for a while now."

"Thank you." Steven replied with a small bow, opening the glass doors for her.

She walked down the corridor to Ethan's room from where some noise was coming, and opened the door, poking her head through it to see the three kids laughing happily and playing cards.

"I'm in my room if you need me. Steven's taken over the controls for now." She looked at each of them for a second and then ducked out of the room and retreated to her own chamber.

* * *

20 hours later, Nimbasa Port, Unova…

Steven pushed open the latch once the light panel next to it turned to green and climbed out onto the spine of the Nautilus, all the things which needed to be taken out of the ship levitating behind him. Metagross, which Steven had released the moment he was out of the latch, was shifting the things over to Lucy where a few hired hands were carrying the things into her house. After a little bit of discussion with Nimbasa's port services, they managed to arrive at the conclusion that it would be legal to dock the Nautilus just off the edge of Lucy's dock.

Ethan clambered out behind him, scrunching his eyes up in the light, it being twelve in the afternoon in Nimbasa. He could smell the ocean spray, not to mentioned feel it on his arms, and he could see Lucy standing at the edge of the dock, waving at him. He raised an arm and waved back, his mind drifting to how he could have already gotten to the dock and met her if he still had Feraligatr.

Ethan stood there with his hands in his jeans' pockets, and waited. His red t-shirt was perfect for the weather in Nimbasa, and presumably for the tropical climate of Hoenn as well. Megan, his mother and Lily were still waiting in the little room the hatch opened into, unsure about standing on the spine of the ship for more than a few minutes. Once everything was across, they climbed out and onto the ship, where Metagross was waiting for them, it's back low. Lily, Megan and his mother got onto its back and were ferried across, leaving Steven who was waiting for Metagross to return rather than using Skarmory, and Ethan who reached towards his belt and released Gliscor into the air around him

"Come on Gliscor, I think a short flight should be fine. Let's go to the others." He mounted the flying type and it took off, carrying him slowly but surely to the other side, and then setting him down, a bit tired. Gliscor wasn't really much of a passenger flyer.

"Thanks." He smiled, recalling Gliscor after scratching it behind the ear and then he turned to Lucy. "It's good to see you!"

She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him tight, letting go after a moment.

"It's nice to see you too little bro." She smiled and put her hands on her hips, looking around to see Steven arrive atop Metagross, sitting as though he was meditating, with his legs crossed and his arms resting on them. "What have you been up to?"

"Getting six badges and getting into a lot of messes." He replied wryly, scratching the back of his head.

"Well. You're going to have to tell me all about that while we have lunch." She smiled, picking Lily up and hugging her again, much to her amusement.

"Let's head out then. I have to ask though Lucy, if I may, is there anywhere quiet, or at least away from the public, nearby where my Pokemon can stretch a bit. It's going to be a few days till we get to Hoenn."

"We'll head on down to my workspace after this. We keep more than just a runway and seating there. A lot of us have Pokemon, so we made the runway and seating adjustable. Move it all away and you're standing on a battleground."

"Well that's pretty useful." Ethan whistled as they walked down the dock to the back of Elesa's house. It was a modern one story house with the walls lined in wood treated to be water resistant on the outside and dark polished beams framing large windows. A cobbled path went by the side of a pool and down to the dock. The whole pool section was jutting out beyond any other piece of land and could only be reached from the house, and therefore Lucy had simply had a low, railing like fence around the edge of the property.

Ethan followed her inside through the familiar house until they reached the dining room, where she had set out some ordered food, and a pie she had made herself. Ethan took a seat in the room, the window right at the edge of the land behind him. Only once the meal was well underway did the conversation begin.

"So Ethan, what kind of 'messes' did you get into pray tell?" Lucy asked, looking at him from the head of the table.

"Someone released a wild Tyranitar in the middle of Goldenrod City, I was in the burnt tower when it flooded, something to do with a bunch of Ariados in Ilex Forest, getting caught in a storm near the Whirl Islands and getting stranded there for a day or two, maybe more. That's about it. I think." Ethan added uncertainly, picking up his fork again.

"Well…. I can't really say much to that now can I?" She replied, raising her eyebrows.

"Frankly there isn't much to say about it anyway. What's happened has happened, and there's not much ado about it." Ethan remarked, picking up his plate and walking off to the kitchen. It took another few minutes, but soon everyone was done and Lucy, Steven and Ethan were standing at the door. His mother, Megan and Lily had elected to stay back for now to unpack or to help unpack.

Lucy flipped a switch on her car keys and the garage door slid upwards, opening to reveal a sedan. Ethan climbed into the front seat, Lucy driving and Steven in the back, and they were on their way out. It took them barely five minutes to drive out of the house, down the road and to the pier, where Lucy parked the car and led them to what looked like a large, stylized warehouse.

Ethan had seen it before during a show, and knew that the front wall was latched on from all sides on the inside and was replaced before shows. He stepped through the open door onto a hard, concrete floored battlefield. Maybe a dozen other people were in the large space, ducking in and out of the doors to the back, and more than a few Pokemon were milling around the front.

"May I?" Ethan asked, looking at his sister, and acting once she nodded.

He reached for his belt and released his Pokemon one by one into the arena, first Typhlosion, then Scyther, then Gengar, Riolu and Gliscor.

"Hey guys. So….. A lot of stuff's happened, and we had to leave Johto. We're in Unova, which is where my sister lives, and we're going to leave to go to another region later. Hoenn. We'll train and travel there with Steven, who's insanely strong." Ethan gestured at the silver haired man, who was releasing his own Pokemon at the time.

"So. Because it's going to take a few days to get to Hoenn, while you guys can move around the ship or fit in it, you won't get to really stretch for another five days. So we came here to let you guys do just that. You should meet Steven's Pokemon as well before we leave.

Each Pokemon acknowledged his statement, then Gliscor dashed off to one side of the arena where another Gliscor was flying around, shocking them all half to death with the suddenness.

"That was unexpected." Ethan remarked as his other Pokemon scattered a little bit, stretching and interacting a bit with Steven's mostly stoic Pokemon. There was his Metagross as usual, Aggron was standing near him, Skarmory was preening its steel feathers in preparation to take to the air, his Lucario was going through a series of stretches, and then there were two Pokemon he didn't recognize.

One was a large bulky black cylinder like body with a round flat head which had multiple eyes on each side and stub like arms levitating in the air and the other Pokemon was a humanoid figure with white feet which's tips it was standing on, red armor over its thighs and shoulders, and a red helmet with a golden crescent blade on it. Its arms were blades and its chest had two silver crescent blades protruding from it.

"These are Claydol and Bisharp." He gestured at them in turn and then looked at Ethan's Pokemon. "What happened to your Feraligatr?"

Ethan clenched his fists as he spoke. "Professor Elm gave him to me to monitor as a Totodile because while he went AWOL he got covered in something green and professor Elm didn't know what happened. I gave him a bath and told the professor and the board recently told him to take it back from me. So I had to go and give it to him while we were in New Bark." Ethan spoke with gritted teeth.

"Moving on to more pleasant topics," Steven nodded, "Your scyther looks about ready to evolve. I have a few metal coats back at home, we can set him up with one."

"Really?" Ethan's eyes brightened as he looked at Scyther, who was honing its blades. "That would be amazing!"

"Consider it done. As long as Scyther wishes to evolve of course." Steven added, to a nod from Ethan.

What happened next however, was the largest surprise of the day. Gliscor flew down to him, with the other Gliscor tailing him and stopped on the point of its tail. The other Gliscor lightly shoved it and then took off, circling above them. Ethan stared at it, trying to guess at what it was trying to say when another familiar face appeared nearby: Lucy's Alakazam.

"Alakazam! Can you help me out! Gliscor's trying to tell me something but I have no idea what." Ethan asked, the psychic type turning to him.

" _He wishes to ask if he may stay here, with the other Gliscor above."_ Alakazam replied, without turning towards Gliscor.

"Is that so buddy? You want to stay here?" Ethan asked, turning to Gliscor with a pang of sadness.

Gliscor nodded rapidly in succession a few times, its tongue hanging out of its mouth.

"I need to ask my sister if it's okay." He said, looking around for her. He silently thanked himself that if another Pokemon had to leave him it was this way rather than how Feraligatr had had to leave, and it wasn't one he had known for too long, even if he had spent a good bit of time with Gliscor.

"Lucy!" He called out, looking for her. He spotted her a second later, her thick black hair standing out amongst the other shades, and he started off towards her. She was standing in a half circle, or rather sitting, facing a Dragonair which had curled itself up on the ground and dozed off.

"Lucy…" He began, tapping her shoulder, "MY Gliscor wants to stay here with that other Gliscor over there." He gestured towards the Pokemon it was flitting about with in the air at this point, and turned back to her. "Would you be willing to keep him?"

Lucy kept staring at the Dragonair for a moment before she turned to him.

"Only if you take Dragonair. It likes me, but it doesn't want anything to do with this life." She sighed, scratching the sleeping dragon's neck.

"So long as it doesn't hate me, I'm fine with that." Ethan shrugged. He picked Gliscor's ultra-ball of off his belt and handed it to Lucy before he whistled and waved for Gliscor to come down.

The indigo flyer began its descent a moment later, reaching Ethan and Lucy with the other Gliscor circling above them.

"You can stay here Gliscor, with Lucy." He sighed, patting it on the back.

Overjoyed, the flying type wrapped its tail around his waist loosely and shifted up and down slightly, waving its pincers about.

"Stay safe buddy." Ethan looked it in the eye and then turned away from it, to Lucy, once it flew off. "Now for the other one."

"Knight!" She called out, rousing the sleeping Dragonair. It slithered over to them on the ground, rather than flying, and stared lazily at the two of them.

"Okay Knight, I know you don't like this life, so how about a chance to travel, and to battle and get stronger?" Lucy asked, at which the dragon type's head perked up. "You get to go with Ethan. He's a strong trainer who's make you the best you can be."

Knight turned towards him and nuzzled him, giving him and once over and then looked at Alakazam.

" _He wants to test your mettle."_ The psychic type projected without moving from its spot, staring at a blank wall.

"Well then. This is the first time someone else said that first. Let's do this. Typhlosion!" Ethan called out, drawing his first Pokemon over from where it was running around in the field. It rushed over to him, skidding to a stop and staring with its head cocked at the dragon type in front of them. "Game time."

"Everyone clear the field and go to the balconies! We're having a quick battle." Lucy called out, spreading murmurs about the field as whoever was present with the exceptions of Lucy and Steven made their way up to the balconies on either side of the warehouse like building. Ethan walked to one end of the field with Typhlosion by his side, crossing his arms and widening his stance slightly, Steven standing a dozen feet away, his own Pokemon standing in a line by his side.

Specter, Riolu and Scyther made their way to Ethan and the two Gliscors were nowhere to be seen. He examined the twelve foot long blue dragon sitting coiled up at the other end of the field, the blue pearl on its neck glowing slightly. Its thick muscular body was covered in tiny, glittering blue scales, and its underbelly was pale white.

All of a sudden, Knight leapt into the air and arced across the entire field in one flying leap, lunging at Typhlosion, who ducked out of the way and scampered to a safe distance before releasing a flamethrower at it. Knight managed to avoid the attack by twisting under and around the stream of fire and retaliating with and ice beam, straight down the middle. The whole thing turned into water and doused the fire continuously, resulting in Typhlosion abdicating the attack.

Ethan smiled and cracked his knuckles before he spoke up.

"Typhlosion, quick attack and brick break!" he instructed, folding his arms once more as Typhlosion took the fight to its adversary, lashing out with a quick attack and with a brick break, both of which were avoided, and then surprising Knight with another quick attack and brick break, landing solid hits on its flanks.

The dragon responded by wrapping its lengthy body around Typhlosion and charging a blue pulse in its mouth.

"Typhlosion! Flame Charge!" Ethan called out, cupping his hands around his mouth to amplify the effect. Typhlosion lit its back up and spread the flames until its body was burning, but Knight held own, determined to show its grit. Typhlosion pushed the flames further, and Knight did let go, but just as it fired a Dragon Pulse into the charging form of Typhlosion. The fire type collided head on with the dragon, the dragon pulse hitting it square in the back, dampened by the flames around Typhlosion.

Typhlosion scampered away and then circled back, already wearing a cloak of flames for safety's sake. In one fell swoop it unleashed a plethora of attacks, first a flamethrower, which was avoided, then a lava plume, a good bit of which hit, and using the light from all of the attacks and the perpetual flames, charged and released a solar beam quickly, clipping Knight near its head.

Changing things up however, Knight hit Typhlosion hard with an aqua tail when it came in to land the finishing touch with flame charge, and completely nullified the attack, sending Typhlosion flying to one end of the field. It landed on all fours and charged again, this time met head on by the dragon type cloaked in water, and rushed out of the way, hitting it with a focus blast.

With this Knight relented and retreated to Lucy's side, nuzzling her arm. Lucy recalled the Pokemon and took it over to a healing machine and put the ultra-ball in which it was contained inside.

"Where the hell did you find a Pokemon that strong?" Ethan asked, scratching the back of his head as he put Typhlosion in the machine as well.

"There's a forest not too far out from the city that's different from ordinary ones in a way I can't describe. I'll have to take you there when you next visit. It's called the Lostlorn Forest. Normally the Pokemon in there are decently developed, or not too strong, but I went deep in, climbing by a waterfall and passing through streams, and I found Knight in the deepest reaches of the forest, near the water. What's odd is that Dragonair aren't really found there. Come to think of it, no non-Unovian Dragon type is found anywhere outside of Dragonspiral Tower in the far Northwest." Lucy mused. "Anyway, you've certainly proved your worth. Both to myself and to Knight." She joked. "Seriously though, you've come really far from the kid who was battling everyone in New Bark."

"Thanks." Ethan smiled, and he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw Steven behind him.

"This has given me a slight understanding of your style, but regardless, the first thing we need to do is have a battle when we get to Hoenn." He stated casually, raising both of Ethan's eyebrows.

"You and me?" Ethan questioned, gesturing at himself.

"I never said I expected you to do anything to my Pokemon." Steven laughed, letting go of him.

"Right…" Ethan frowned and pulled Typhlosion's ultra-ball out of the machine once the light turned green, releasing it onto the battlefield again. Lucy did the same, releasing Knight right next to them, the dragon gliding up to Ethan and nuzzling his neck. It made a soothing sound, an indescribable noise which calmed Ethan down.

"Well he definitely likes you. Knight, Ethan's your trainer now." She handed him a glass like pokeball with a dark grey lower half and a cardinal upper half.

"Typhlosion, Riolu, Specter, Scyther! Come over here!" He called out, drawing his Pokémon's attention. Each within a moment, standing in a line next to him. "Guys this is Knight. Gliscor wants to stay here, and Knight wants to come with us, so he's coming with us and Gliscor's staying here. Knight this is your new family. Typhlosion you've already met, that's Scyther, Riolu and Specter." Ethan gestured at his Pokemon one by one, Knight meeting each of them properly before it turned back towards him.

"How about we head back now. You two did say you needed to leave within an hour from now." Lucy suggested.

"That sounds good." Ethan nodded, looking to Steven, who reciprocated his gesture and recalled his Pokemon one by one.

Ethan recalled his Pokemon and they left the building, piling into the car and driving off to Lucy's house. It took them all of five minutes, once again, to reach the house. Ethan took a deep breath as he stepped out of the car, contemplating what to say as he entered the house. He walked through the corridor to the lounge, where his mother was sitting, drinking a cup of coffee at the counter across from Megan.

"Are you leaving?" she stood up. Lily was sitting on the couch watching cartoons.

"I suppose we are." Ethan replied somberly, hugging her.

"For Arceus's sake, stay in touch." She sighed, letting go of him. "And please, stay safe."

"I will. Bye Lily. Bye Megan." He hugged each of them in turn and turned to Lucy who had just come in the door. "See you sometime." He hugged her once and then stepped back, next to Steven.

"Goodbye." He stated quietly, looking each of them in the eye. "Thank you for understanding how imperative it was that we left Johto immediately. Has there been anything on the news?"

"Johto has gone into a full state of emergency, or rather the ports have. The rest is preparing for war. The Kaloasian ships managed to flee for the most part. Two were struck down by the Navy, one taken out by Jasmine before it got beyond her reach, and one by a slew of trainers who managed to circle a yacht around it for long enough to distract the crew before it tried to fire on the yacht." She replied, crossing her arms. "Unova's already issued their statement. The League and the Legion won't be intervening. They've declared that they're going to seal all ports of entry to armed vehicles, unless approved by the league, which are still to be greeted with whatever force is available, and all vehicles, persons and items entering the region are to be scanned for weapons."

"As expected." Steven straightened his back once more and looked at each of them. "Farewell, and stay safe. I wish you all the best for any future endeavors."

With that Steven stepped back out of the lounge and proceeded out to the docks, followed by the others, Ethan right behind him and Lily walking with her mother at the tail end of the group. Waiting for them was the Nautilus, the hatch above sea level, the water lapping lightly against its moving form. Ethan jumped onto its spine behind Steven and walked down to the hatch, climbing down it and helping him seal it, with one final wave towards his family.

He walked down to the bridge, where Blake was resetting one of the numerous clocks on the wall. She put it at twelve on the dot and walked over to the dashboard, leaving it inactive. Clicking away at a few keys, she sat down in the pilot's seat and looked at Steven, having already turned the Nautilus around to face the right way.

"Nautilus time zero hours, 6200 miles to Hoenn, approximate arrival at time 124 hours, or Day 6 Hour 4. Permission to commence?" She continued to look at him, her hand's hovering over the dash in front of her.

"Commence. I'll take over in a little bit after I have a discussion with Ethan." Steven crossed his arms and stared out into the ocean just below the water level.

Blake's hands flew across the blank glass panel in front of her as she ran a sequence across it, causing the ship's engines to whir to life and make it accelerate, slowly at first. Ethan watched as the needles on the clock started ticking and Blake steered them out to sea, the vessel slowly going deeper as the ocean permitted it.

Steering him out of bridge once they were a fair distance from Nimbasa, Steven took him to the library/lounge, sitting him down on a black leather couch.

"How much do you know about Ace Trainers, league hierarchy and the internal workings of the league?" Steven asked, putting his hands together and bringing them up to his nose, his elbows on his knees.

"There's the Champion, the head of the Elite Four and the final authority, the Elite Four themselves, then there's the league's ace trainer force below them, in order of ranks, who are basically the region's fighting force." Ethan summed up, frowning.

"I'm going to take you deep into this, because you'll need to learn it for the path I'm going to take you down while I'm training you. You said at some point that this was what you wanted to do, and I'm going to give you a big push down the road." Steven stated, going to the TV and activating it. He picked a pen up from the console below it and activated the wall mounted screen's whiteboard, inking "Hierarchy and Workings" at the top in near calligraphic writing.

"In general, you were right. We'll start at the top, filling out each thing by how commonly known it is. I'll fill out the political relations alongside. In any case, at the very top is the League Champion, who isn't exactly the supreme authority. Their voice tends to be the leading one, and they are the leader, but when the elite four, alongside whom he or she will work, vote, including the champion, the champion's vote is also only worth one." Steven started his web at the top, looking at Ethan to make sure he had understood it. "So every city or every district depending on population, has two senators, elected by the people, whom comprise the senate, work with the alongside the league as the Legislative branch. The Elite four and the champion make up the executive branch. The judiciary is for the most part the league, and while the senate can propose new laws and whatnot, they can be shot down entirely."

"That's the top of the chain. Below the elite four and the champion, and the senate, comes Ace Trainer Corps, which in most regions is simply referred to as say the Indigo Corps, or the Ever Grande Corps. Unova calls theirs the Legion. On the political parallel come the gym leaders, politically and morally sound people approved by the senate, and trainers strong enough to defend their cities, equal to some Ace Trainers, and validated by the League. They function as the city leaders, along with a city council of ten to thirty based off of population."

He took a deep breath and then continued. "So the League asks you to challenge the eight gyms and collect their badges to be able to participate in their annual conference, where the pick the strongest or most capable trainers, not necessarily ones who make it past the quarter finals even, depending on who they go up against, and recruit them as Ace Trainers. The Ace trainer block is the fighting force, and the peacekeeping force. There are five ranks. You enter as a rank 1, and if you do choose to enter after being recruited, you're obligated to at least four years of service. Considering the regions don't really go to war much, people either don't join the corps and settle, or stay far longer than four years. A rank one is a novice in the corps, but still a strong trainer in the rest of the world. Rank one's work in groups of four, with a Rank 3 or higher commanding them from base. Rank two's continue to work in groups for serious missions, but one of their own groups is their leader."

"Rank threes are seriously strong trainers, the ones who you see as the more powerful ace trainers around, and go about on their own, or if they so wish, in groups. At that point, you have a decent amount of respect in the corps. Rank fours are fewer and they're occasionally seen around the region, taking care of major issues. Rank five's… There are never many, and they're the commanders of the corps, after the Elite Four, so far. You rarely every see a rank five, because the scale of the missions they take on don't tend to occur in populated areas unless there's a crisis." Steven put down the pen and looked at Ethan. "That all make sense?"

"It's pretty straight forward, it's just a good bit to remember." He replied, leaning forward.

"That it is. But we're not done. There's one crucial little piece that only the senate, the league, and I believe, the rank fives, know about. Every region has their own prefix before it, but without it they would be known as the guard." Steven gestured at the gap he had left between the rank fives and the elite four.

"Yours is known as the Indigo Guard. The Elite Four and the Champion handpick from the rank fives, of whom there are maybe eight at a time, the Guard, to become invisible. They are those who bridge the still visible power gap between the Elite Four and the Rank fives. Their identities are only known by the league, the league from now on, being only the elite four and the champion. Only when I explicitly mention the corps do I mean the corps. Even in the previous lecture." Steven remarked, turning back to the board. "There are at every point in time, four active members of the guard. The rank fives know them as well. But that's about it. These four are in charge, of quadrants of the region, and simply reside in that quadrant, essentially being invisible and extremely powerful warriors. To give you an idea of how strong they are, whenever a member of the elite four passes or retires, the strongest member of the guard takes his or her place."

Steven looked back at Ethan after scrawling one last thing. "So while the rank fives are the commanders, it is the guard who control the corps from the shadows. Another thing. Every rank 1 spends anywhere from six months to a year training under a rank 4 in another region right at the start of their tenure. Kanto doesn't count as another region for you, but for another region's rank ones, they get to choose between Kantonian and Johtan Ace Trainers to work under. In fact the reason they have two conferences is so that people with eight badges can still win a conference, the silver conference. The Indigo League's requirements for recruitment apart from placement in the conference are all sixteen badges, to prove you've traveled and or know all of Indigo to be a member of the Indigo Corps. The only other exception is if you have a relative, first cousin or closer in terms of blood, of the requisite rank who's willing to take you into their unit, regardless of region."

"I met your father when I was a rank 1, about seven years ago. He was a rank five when I was put under him. I watched him rise to become one of the Indigo Guard. I knew who he was. My actions had pushed me up to a rank 3 by the time we were on the mountaintop together, how, I don't understand, but probably because of his tutelage."

"There we were, towards the end of the Sinnoh Wars. It ended up being a fight between a few of the Origin Guard, and your father and myself. I've already given you the short part of the battle. Now the tail end. Your father released a Pokemon only ever spoken off in legends, seen only a few times in history. I went back to Mount Silver later, when I had healed, and with the help of my Pokemon, after two days, managed to locate two cracked halves of what looked like a pokeball with no hinge. Polished, deep red metal on the upper half, and polished silver on the bottom half. It was cracked right between the two halves. I examined them, found a few runes in them and validated what he had done, but not how he had done it. Your father had a keystone of sorts, created by Raikou, the beast clapped in stone, to summon it. He release Raikou from its stone home, to defeat Sinnoh. Everywhere, lightning storms took the fighters by surprise, with how many bolts hit Sinnoh fighters. And from what happened in the tower, I'm assuming it returned to its position until it awoke recently." Steven finished, putting down the pen and looking Ethan in the eye. "I'll leave the hierarchy diagram on the screen until we get to Hoenn. Managed to absorb any of that?"

Ethan sat there for a moment, unable to speak, and then looked at Steven again.

"Yes. I know the truth about my father now…. And I'm so much more determined to follow in his footsteps now. I'll learn all this before we get to Hoenn. Anything else?" Ethan asked, looking up finally.

"There is one thing. Hoenn and Indigo recently signed a very cooperative, binding treaty. One of the ways of symbolizing that was by presenting the other region with a history of the elite four, champions, the rank fives and the guard. Essentially they're books that contain sections for each past member of the four categories, and present for the rank fives, elite four and champion. Those who rose from one of those ranks to another are recorded in their highest rank of service. Disclosing even the names of the past guard members, who leave service in silence with huge compensations and medals inscribed with words that don't stick out to one who doesn't know what they're looking for, if a big thing. I have in this ship, the volume given to me by Lance. I want you to read through it. And after that I might give you Hoenn's. But this one is more important."

Steven walked up to one of the shelves and pulled a thick book bound in black leather with silver lettering down the spine reading Indigo, and the same on the front, and handed it to him. Ethan held it in his hands. In here was knowledge about the dynamics of the controllers of the regions, and about his father. He opened the first page, reading the tribute written down.

' _May the memories of those who dedicated themselves to the highest services of Indigo be forever etched into history.'_

"I want you to have read the whole thing by the time we make land in Hoenn." Steven crossed his arms and walked out of the room, leaving Ethan there.

Uneasily, he opened the contents, looking at the list of names by category and era. It was going to be a long read. He shifted the book in his lap and looked around. Finding the switch for the large reading lamp in a corner, he turned it on and curled up on the couch next to it, opening the first section. The Rank Fives.

The first page after the section heading was the first rank 5 trainer by appointment to the rank and alphabetical order within that time, dating more than six hundred years back, to the start of the current system of government, to the year 1407, approximately six hundred and eight years ago. The first name, or rather the first page, was dedicated man by the name of Stephen Stane, a tall man with piercing blue eyes, short, greying brown hair pushed up from the front In a sort of wave and a thin, trimmed beard and mustache, wearing a blue vest style coat with folds and layers over a blue shirt or as close to a t-shirt existed then. Ethan could tell that whosoever had been employed to make the original drawings was talented, because he felt like Stane's eyes were following him. Stane wasn't listed as a rank 5, but the first page was reserved for him as the first person from Indigo to take a place among the new ranks under the old elite four. Stane was rather listed as the first champion of the NEW indigo league, under the same symbol of the original founder.

Stane was a comparatively tall person, standing at about 6' 3", but wasn't stocky, or gangly. His image presented an air of authority, visible even through the portrait. His Pokemon and his feats were just as impressive. Ethan read the passage written about him quietly, poring over it.

 _Stephen Stane, (1385-1460) was born to Mark and Alexa Stane in Mahogany Town. Starting off his journey as a trainer in 1403, he traveled Indigo and ventured throughout the region, turning to one of two ancient brotherhoods in Johto in 1404, the guardians of the silver wing. Joining them, he trained as a disciple in every art known to them for two years. Joining the league forces in 1406 at the outbreak of the war, he rose to a position of power, coming to be known as the Bastion of Indigo after he singlehandedly crushed Kaloasian forces trying to take over the Indigo Plateau when the Elite Four and Champion were dispersed about the region, fighting in the front lines. During the two day calm that followed, the league established the current system of government and appointed him the first Guard Member under the current League, and he soon rose to become the first champion of the new wave. To the current day, his descendants have been prominent in the corps, the guard and the league. Pokemon listed below (no particular order):_

Arcanine

Electivire

Magmortar

Kingdra

Dragonite

Scizor

Dusknoir

Ethan took a deep breath and scanned the remaining information before he continued reading. He was to finish this before he reached Hoenn, and that was just what he'd do.

DIAGRAM OF LEAGUE SUBORDER

 **Champion**

 **Elite Four**

 **(Insert Region Specific Name)**

 **Guard (4 MEMBERS)**

 **(Insert Region Specific Name)**

 **Corps.**

 **\- Rank 5** **(Few, top of the chain)**

 **\- Rank 4** **(Some, high up in the chain)**

 **\- Rank 3** **(Decent level of respect)**

 **\- Rank 2** **(Allowed to lead own groups)**

 **\- Rank 1** **(Rookies)**

 ***All Trainers are capable, this description is within the corps and above**


	14. Mysteries of the World

**Chapter 14: Mysteries of the World**

 **A/N: So…. For general purposes, I'm restating/changing some ages of characters here.**

 **Ethan: previously 15, now 16**

 **Lucy: previously 18 (I think?) now 21**

 **Lily: 7 (I don't think I specified her age)**

 **Blake: 19 (I may have been going along the track that she was Ethan's age because I couldn't remember what I scribbled down in my notes because my notes are back at home [Stupid mistake] and I'm away at boarding school. Fortunately, I was digging through my photo library to empty it of trash and found a few of the pages)**

 **Steven 25**

 **Current year, 2015. Because I feel like it.**

 **Not else much to say save for thanks for reading/reviewing. Review Replies:**

 **GarionRiva: Makes sense. I sort of gave him Gliscor on a whim. And then I regretted it. Thanks!**

 **ThalTair: I hope to make the Hoenn Arc (I honestly don't know how long it will be, but sure, let's call it an arc. It may well be a ridiculously long one) just as enjoyable! Thanks!**

* * *

Ethan stared out the front of the Nautilus, the dark of the ocean's depths sending chills down his spine. Nothing much was visible to him out the window for the most part, except the rock faces of the trenches the maneuvered through when they came close enough and occasionally the massive serpentine body of Blake's Milotic. His mind drifted to the passage he had read about his father.

 _Nicolas Photon, (1972-2009), was born to James and Maeve Photon in New Bark Town, Johto. He started his journey as a trainer in January 1991, traveling across all of Indigo twice, including the Sevii Islands, and was known as one of the few people in history who managed to scale Mount Silver, and was in fact known for training there. Photon took part in the Indigo Conference in December 1992, skipping the silver Conference altogether. Storming the conference, Photon swept the opposition to wind up second in the conference to Quintin Marks (see next entry). Photon spent his year training out of region as a rookie ace trainer in Unova, under Andrew Grace, before returning to Johto and rising up the ranks of the Indigo Corps. As a Rank 5, Photon trained Steven Stone of Hoenn. Photon lost his life in 2009, defending Johto against The Monarch's Guard (Kalos). Pokemon listed below:  
_

 _Typhlosion Kingdra Dragonite Samurott Haxorus Steelix Golurk_

Ethan turned his neck a bit to look at the back of Steven's head. It was Steven's turn piloting the craft, and he steered it expertly through the waters around Mossdeep, something Ethan had no doubt he had done before, and around to a small cove with an overhang where he pulled it in and docked it. Ethan was partially glad that they had surfaced once inside the cove, just because it was day and with the Nautilus's soft lighting, it would have stung a bit. Steven walked out to the hatch, motioning for Ethan to unscrew it with him.

It took a minute, but they got it open and heaved all the things out. Ethan stared at his things, the pack with all his traveling things and his small bag. Sitting some 7000 miles away from home, traveling with nothing but what he kept on his back and his Pokemon put everything in perspective, and with a grimace, he thought of the condition in Johto.

He helped Blake out and carried what things they had through a passage into a small modern house with plenty of sunlight. The floors were wood paneled with a foot of glass running through the center, revealing water flowing underneath. The main lounge's walls were two and a half window walls, and lined up against one of the more sturdy walls was a collection of gems and stones.

"Welcome to my humble abode… Steven gestured around with his arms, placing the book on Indigo's guards, rank fives and league members on a shelf. Ethan had finished it with time to spare.

Blake walked straight out the door with a wave and a smile, her bag slung over her shoulder. Ethan watched as she walked out to a car parked in the driveway and got in, driving out. It hit him then that he didn't actually know her age until now. He had thought she was sixteen but she had to be at least eighteen to drive in Hoenn. He shook his head and turned back to Steven, who was making himself a cup of coffee.

"Anything to drink? Coffee, tea, water, orange juice?" He questioned, opening his fridge.

"Actually I could use some orange juice if you don't mind." He replied, accepting a glass from Steven and drinking.

"Time to plan things out. Considering I've just arrived back in Hoenn and there's work to be done, I'm going to return to Ever Grande in a day. You, I expect to either go about a normal journey. Travel. I myself will find you once I have this mess down. It gives you some extra time to temper yourself if you wish to and to adjust to the time zone. Once I'm ready, training begins. Considering we're in Hoenn and I'm far more familiar with the lay of the land, it won't be what we had planned for Johto, which was traveling and training. No. You'll travel for sure. When I find you though, I'll take you somewhere I can train you, and it'll be nothing short of working you to the bone, if leniently." Steven grinned devilishly, his eyes sparkling.

"Feel free to bed down in one of the spare rooms if you plan on staying in Mossdeep for the night, or leave. Do what you will, but come back in the evening around seven if you're free. We'll take a look at your Scyther, since I have more than I few metal coats lying about here from whenever Aggron's plating changes.."

"I think I'm going to go to the Pokemon center, get back in the feel of traveling as much as I can. I'll definitely stop by if I'm free though. I probably will be."

Steven shrugged, bringing his cup to his mouth again. "Your call, I'm going to go meet someone. I do urge you though, take a few days off before you start, and even when you're traveling, enjoy Hoenn. There's a lot to see."

"I'll make sure to do that." Ethan replied, putting his empty glass in the sink and rinsing it out. "See you sometime."

Ethan hefted his pack over his shoulder and picked up his bag. Using the clock on the wall, he fixed the time on his watch and his phone, and walked out with a backwards wave. It was twelve in the afternoon in Hoenn, and the sun was shining high in the sky, bathing Mossdeep city in a warmth that wouldn't be found anywhere in Indigo except Cinnibar, and even that was different. Cinnibar had a searing heat, with ash and dust in the air, but here it was more of a comfortable warmth. Ethan was glad he'd acted on Blake's advice and left the Nautilus wearing khaki shorts and a navy V-neck.

He looked around the island city, and spotting he red roof of the Pokemon center glinting in the sunlight, he proceeded to walk there. It took him about half an hour to reach the Pokemon Center, near the West Coast of the island, on higher ground. Its roof seemed lower than that of the ones in Johto and it had a few balconies at the edge of the high ground upon which it was built, overlooking the ocean. Ethan had learnt from their journey in the Nautilus that Hoenn's oceans were at least twice as deep as those elsewhere for the most part, not counting the western straits, and had trenches which doubled even that depth all over the eastern end, between Ever Grande and the mainland.

He pulled his phone out, checking his messages and replying to a few from his mother and Lucy, before checking one from Blake.

 _Drop by the Mossdeep Space Center (You can't miss it. Large glass and steel building, private property behind it, rocket parked off the coast) later today if you're free. Maybe around two. My sister(s) want to meet you. We can go out to lunch or something, show you around what we call home a bit. See you. Ask for Blake Wilson._

Ethan smiled, sending back a quick confirmation and then walked up to the reception counter, waiting his turn to be greeted by a stern looking woman in her fifties with brown hair under a cap wearing a full nurse's uniform.

"Hi, could I get a room?" He asked, smiling as he pulled his tag out from around his neck. The thin metal card with the two chips embossed in the left side of the Indigo Crest raised an eyebrow as she ran it through the scanner, typing away furiously.

"Mr. Photon is it? From Johto?" She asked, confirming what she was reading off of the screen.

"Yep."

"One-o-eight. Down the hall to the left. You ought to have a nice view of the beach." She handed a key without another word, and he walked off down the corridor with a quick word of thanks. He opened the door to the room, finding something quite different from what he had been expecting. Instead of an outside wall, there was a terrace like protrusion from the narrow room, all wood, matching the floor, with a thick membrane like curtain sealed around it, letting in no wind, noise or light. Ethan set his things down and tugged it open halfway around, revealing a view of the Mossdeep's sands through a cluster of trees.

He stared out the window for a moment, looking at the scenery and then he let go of the curtain like membranes, sitting down on the bed. It was a single room, small but he didn't have to share it with anyone, which was nice considering he was planning on staying in Mossdeep a few days, getting adjusted to the time zone and examining Hoennian maps, not to mention taking on the local gym and then relaxing.

He looked around and then walked right back out of the room, locking it behind him. He made his way down to the main hall of the Pokemon center and picked up a map from the stack on the receptionists counter, heading to the training room nearby so that his Pokemon could stretch their legs, even if it wasn't outside. He grinned as it occurred to him that his Pokemon would stick out like a sore thumb when they were outside.

Scanning his key, he went into an empty training room and closed the door behind him. It was maybe thirty feet one each side, pretty plain. The floor was damage and fire resistant wood, and one wall was a massive window, glazed from the outside so that not too much was visible looking into the room, but light still streamed in, and Ethan could see the city outside. He reached for his belt and one by one released his Pokemon into the room. Soon he stood facing his Pokemon. Some of them had had a chance to see the inside of the Nautilus, being able to fit in it comfortably and without incident, like Typhlosion, Riolu and Specter, but even those three couldn't get a decent stretch in inside the Nautilus. He leaned against the wall of the room and looked at all of his Pokemon. Each was tense and ready to release the pent up energy from spending some number of days without activity or in their pokeballs. Ethan frowned for a second, losing his train of thought.

Ethan felt slightly dizzy, for reasons he couldn't understand, and despite the fact that the window was supposed to be soundproof, he felt like he could hear some sort of sound. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, until it grew louder and louder. The roar of a waterfall was audible, albeit somewhat muted, and Ethan found out why. On the window itself, a spinning ring of flying silver sparks formed, about a four feet in radius, through which was visible what seemed to be water…. He could see underwater through the ring.

Immediately assuming it was a lake due to the sound of the waterfall in the background, Ethan stepped closer to it, standing about six feet away from it. His Pokemon scattered themselves about the room uneasily. Ethan's squinted, seeing a shadowy form about three feet long approaching the ring, and not of its own volition. Ethan stepped back cautiously, as in a cascade of water, a blue humanoid Pokemon with whiskers and a shell attached to each of its legs was flung out of the gateway.

Ethan whipped out his phone as the sparks died out and the ring disappeared slowly, leaving him with the Pokemon and a centimeter of water spread about most of the floor. Pointing it at the Pokemon, seemingly a water type, which was regaining its bearings, he scanned it quickly, hoping it would be one of the commonly known Pokemon of a region that wasn't fully documented in Brendan's database, or from a region he did know. It would be terribly awkward to have to go to the nurse and ask what the Pokemon he had was.

It took the machine a few minutes, but finally the scan returned results. It was a Dewott. A Unovian Pokemon, and the second stage of the water type starter in the region. The pre-evolution of Samurott. Ethan stared at in it in shock, still unable to swallow what had just happened.

The Pokemon had regained its bearings and seemed equally confused, looking around the room without a clue of what had just happened. As far as Ethan could guess, it had just been swimming in a lake, and now it was here, presumably some 6000 miles away if it had come from Unova.

Ethan stared at it, relaxing his posture. His own Pokemon seemed to be in various states off shock as well, unable to process entirely what had just happened.

Dewott looked around the room, still confused. Ethan relaxed and recalled his Pokemon one by one, each removal making the Pokemon seem a bit less hostile. Finally he was left with just Typhlosion standing by his side and Dewott sitting opposite him, having decided not to react hostilely. The puddle had soaked into the floor, so Ethan mimicked it and sat down, waiting for it to do something. Ethan slowly reached for Riolu's ultra-ball and released the Pokemon into the room, drawing no reaction from Dewott.

"If you could talk to our friend over there that would be great. Sort of try and figure out what happened?" Ethan asked, scratching the cub behind its ears.

With a quick nod, Riolu jumped over to where Dewott was sitting and started interacting with it. For some time they sat and communicated, and then they broke out into a game of tag, running all around the room whilst Typhlosion and Ethan watched amusedly. For maybe five minutes the two Pokemon ran about joyfully, then they finally stopped, Dewott sitting down nearer to Ethan than before, maybe five feet from him.

Riolu approached him and looked him in the eye, pushing out thoughts using aura.

' _He says that it chanced upon a lake after a few days in a forest it didn't know, and so it dove in to swim, and after a little while, a light appeared and he was pulled towards it and then he arrived here.'_ Riolu explained, turning to Ethan. _'It's asking to come with you since I explained how far away we are from Unova and it has no way home nor anywhere to go here.'_

"New members are always welcome in this family." Ethan smiled and looked at the Pokemon, pulling the last ultra-ball off of his belt. "I'm going to press this button and try and catch you now."

With that warning he waited a second and then pressed the button. Immediately Dewott disappeared in a flash of light, and with a few slight shakes, was registered to Ethan's ID. Ethan released all of his Pokemon again, one by one, and sat them down as best as he could in a circle. It was nearing one in the afternoon at this point.

"So guys. Another new friend. Boy this group is fluctuating." Ethan sighed, gesturing with his arms. "Meet Dewott, who has no idea how he got here from Unova. In any case, we'll take fifteen or twenty minutes to recover from those days doing nothing, and then we'll see about it in the evening. For now, everybody do what you want in a part of the room without affecting anyone else. Dewott, you and Riolu will come with me. So we can figure out as best as we can what you know how to do."

His Pokemon dispersed, taking up places about the room, and Dewott and Riolu followed him to a corner of the room near the window, where he promptly reached up to the wall and pulled down a folding seat built into the wall, some five feet up. Clambering onto it, he looked down at Riolu and Dewott.

"Okay, one by one, every move you know, right at the wall." Ethan instructed it, Riolu jumping the five feet up to the platform like seat.

Dewott shrugged and looked at the wall, starting off with a simple water gun and then switching to a water pulse, before moving on to what Ethan thought was aqua jet, then using brine, and lastly, finishing up with Fury cutter and then a move Ethan didn't recognize where it detached the shells on its legs, made blades out of them and slashed the wall.

Ethan frowned and looked them move up, finding that it was razor shell, a move exclusive to the Samurott line. Ethan thought for a minute, checking his watch again to see he still had ten minutes before he needed to retreat to his room, take a shower and head out to meet Blake.

"Okay. I think we'll wrap this up for now and start actual rigorous training tomorrow or this evening maybe, but right now I want to have the time to take my time with my shower before I go to meet some friends." He started. "Hey guys! Round it all up!" He called out, recalling each of them as they approached him.

Climbing down from the seat he closed it and exited the room, checking out and heading back to his own. Moving quickly, he picked up a towel from the set provided and went to shower.

He found the showers empty and picked a stall at random, showering and getting out at a decent pace. He made his way back to his room and got his clothes, taking them to the laundry room dressed in a random shirt and sweatpants, and ironed them, going back to his room to don the navy V-neck and the khaki shorts once more.

Checking the time to see he had fifteen minutes to spare, he clipped his minimized ultra-balls onto his belt, not easily noticeable, and then walked out of the Pokemon center, looking for the Space Center. He could see it easily. Dominating the right side of the island, on higher ground, was a massive steel and glass building with large docks extending out behind it, and an actual Rocket visible some distance out, far enough that the sound from its launch wouldn't destroy human ears.

Ethan started walking towards it around 1:45, and it took him all of ten minutes to cross the distance of around half a mile given the upwards trek. Ethan presumed that they had chosen the higher ground so that there was more space for underground sites and storage.

He walked up to the doors of the massive building, a set of glass doors with the Mossdeep Space Center logo frosted onto them, a crescent with a very narrow ellipse cutting through the center. He stepped through them as they slid open right before him, into a small entryway with black carpeting. Passing through another such door he entered what seemed to be another world. Workstations were visible all around, with a main reception counter on one side and a few guards keeping an eye on the stations and the visitors to relieve the frazzled genii while they worked. Ethan could see a railing overlooking an open pit of sorts which extended up to through to the roof of the building, and down at least another floor.

To the right on the back wall was a staircase which made up its own corridor, and a passage beyond it to a second viewing platform on the other side of the pit. Ethan walked up to the reception counter and waited patiently until someone got to him, putting away some papers.

"Hi, where can I find Blake Wilson?" He asked with a smile, leaning forward slightly.

"Blake Wilson… She ought to be somewhere on the second floor, either at her workstation or near the viewing gallery." The man behind the counter replied, gesturing at the staircase.

"Thanks." With a nod in reply, Ethan walked across the room to the staircase, and up to the second floor. He emerged right next to the side of the viewing gallery on the second floor. Taking a look around he didn't see Blake standing there and so he looked around the workstations. Each workstation relatively open. It was shaped like a square with a wide slit cut into one side, desks built into the other two, and the remaining side being shared with the next workstation, which like the side with the entrance was a frosted glass wall.

It took him a minute but he found Blake sitting in a workstation with things that were probably hers strewn across one desk and papers across the other. She was sitting in one of three swivel chairs there with her back turned to him, facing a girl who made Ethan's heart stop beating for a moment.

Everything else went silent in his ears, the only things audible to him were his own heartbeat and her laughter at something Blake mentioned. Her blond hair was tied back in a ponytail behind a heart shaped face with serene blue eyes and a smile decorating it. She was curled up a bit on her chair, and seemed to be shorter than Ethan for sure, maybe five six or five seven, and was lithe but curved.

As much as Ethan's heart stopped for a moment, the second she saw him her cheeks heated up, though Ethan didn't register it until Blake turned around and saw him. He managed to recover quickly, smiling with a small wave.

"Ethan, come on over! This is my younger sister, Victoria. She's sixteen, like you." Blake introduced her, gesturing towards her. "My older sister isn't here right now, I think she's with Steven. Both of them wanted to meet Steven's protégé, and to meet you after I described you to them over the phone."

"Hi." Ethan responded, sitting down in the third empty chair opposite Victoria. She was wearing shorts and a blue tank top which accentuated her figure. Blake reached over and pulled a sliding door over, closing the cubicle and leaned back in her chair.

"So… What's Steven having you do?" She asked, looking at him. "And what's that thing you have strapped to your leg? I've been meaning to ask you for a while."

"Well, for now he's told me to travel and go about a 'normal' journey through Hoenn, and once he's cleaned up the political mess, he'll find me and boot camp begins." Ethan replied with a wry smile, putting a hand on his forehead. "As for the thing, as you called it, it's my father's staff."

Ethan pulled it out of its holster and stood up, unlocking it, and immediately it collapsed outwards into a full five and a half foot staff, with ends textured to be abrasive when they were whirring alongside the gears beneath them, and a current switch which could release charges through them. Ethan himself didn't understand exactly how I worked, but he knew it had something to do with the compartmentalization scheme pokeballs used.

Collapsing it again, he fixed it back in its place and sat down once more.

"I should properly introduce myself shouldn't I…?" Ethan mused aloud, "Ethan Photon, at your service."

"Victoria Wilson." The younger of the two siblings replied with a smile. "Nice to meet you."

"So… um… interact… get to know each other… I don't know." Blake deadpanned, turning to her desk.

"So…. I'm a trainer from New Bark Town, apparently Steven trained under my father, and I've been journeying Johto to take on the silver and Indigo Leagues, and right now I have six badges, and six Pokemon." Ethan explained, gesturing at his belt.

"I'm from right here in Mossdeep City, and I'm in love with music. I play the guitar, cello, violin, saxophone and piano amongst other things, and I have one Pokemon that I'm raising, a Vibrava. I performed at my old school, and while I do want to attend an arts school now that I'm done with high school, I want to travel around Hoenn as well."

"That's amazing. I play the guitar but I don't think I could ever play that many." Ethan smiled, leaning back.

"That's just the tip of the iceberg. I happen to know for a fact that she plays bass, drums and the harp as well. There's probably more that I don't know about." Blake winked at him with a smile, turning back to her desk almost immediately.

"Blake!" Victoria blushed embarrassedly, turning back to him. "Thank you! And I highly doubt I'd be able to get six badges."

"Thank you very much. What do you like to do in your free time? Apart from music that is." Ethan asked.

"Well, I like to visit Mossdeep's beaches. I know them like the back of my hand. What about you. Apart from traveling and training your Pokemon."

"Basketball. The guitar. Photography. Or rather I used to like photography. I haven't really taken any pictures on my whole journey." Ethan grimaced, looking at a wall.

"Oh shoot." Blake smiled for a second before it turned into a frown, looking at the pair. "I've been saddled with a bunch of work because of how long I've been away for…. Don't let me ruin your day. Victoria, why don't you take Ethan around; show him Mossdeep. We can all meet up at Steven's later, around seven. He's asked me to bring you two along with me as well for dinner."

"Sure." Victoria replied with a small smile of her own, her eyes sparkling as she turned nervously to Ethan. "Shall we head out?"

"After you." Ethan rose, sliding open the cubicle door, Blake oblivious to them as she immersed herself in her work.

Victoria led him out of the Space Center and out into the open air once more. A quick glance at his watch revealed it was one thirty.

"Up for some lunch?" She asked, turning towards him.

"Sure." Ethan found it harder to speak. He couldn't not look at her, and with every passing moment, he liked her even more.

"Do you want to see Mossdeep's trainer center? It's sort of like an outlet specialized for trainers. It's more like a square shaped building with a courtyard in the middle and some restaurants." She suggested, pointing in the direction of a complex some ways away.

"That actually sounds great." Ethan grinned, following the girl on the five minute walk down to the complex. Mossdeep's ground was separated in large swathes by heights. There was no gradual slope or anything, rather there were three to four foot high rises towards the eastern side of the island, upon which the space center had been built. The city seemed to have for the most part wide pedestrian and bike paths instead of actual roads, with grass on either side, making small parks. They made their way to the southern side of the city, where they entered the outlet style center. Walking in, he found himself surrounded by all sorts of stores. Making a mental note to come back to stock up properly, he decided it would be best if he only actually wasted any time in one of the stores, one that seemed useful.

"Good choice. Lancaster's is the best and most reasonably priced gear around, and they've got some pretty innovative things from what I know. You might want to check out their traveling packs." She suggested, following him into the store. It was arranged like any outdoors store, or sporting goods store with one story. The front wall was glass, facing the courtyard, and the shop was a large rectangle, longer than it was wide. Ethan weaved through the shelves, picking out a folding knife recommended for trainers to keep on them by the Ever Grand Corps, and going to the pack section.

He stopped dead center in the aisle with black displays on either side, only holding what looked like backpacks.

"Where are the traveling packs?" Ethan asked, confused as Victoria smiled mischievously.

"Compartmentalized packs. Each of them has a maximum volume they can store, and a maximum mass. So you could carry everything you needed in this one backpack, and take it out when you needed it. The only thing it doesn't do is change the weight of what you're carrying, so while you won't have much to carry, you'll still be carrying the same weight." An aid explained, walking down the aisle towards him. "One of our more Spartan models might interest you if you're travelling with enough luggage for you to carry on your own."

"This is the voyager. Two cubic meters of storage space, which because of the compartmentalization technology in it, doesn't let you worry about the shape of the object. So you could quite literally store a cello, a basketball, a tennis racket and a bunch of other things in here and not worry about anything. The only hitch with that is it brings capacity down to about 1.7 to 1.5 meters cubed. It's about 50 bucks if you're looking to buy it and we have various color schemes."

"That's actually pretty nifty." Ethan remarked, picking up a black and grey one and walking to the checkout counter.

Paying for the bag, he put his knife in it and slung it over his shoulder, walking out of the store with Victoria by his side and a grin plastered on his face.

"Let's get some lunch. The sushi place is really good." Victoria suggested, leading him to one of the restaurants, where they got themselves some food and sat down at a table near the fountain in the courtyard, under the sun.

Ethan zoned out for a second, staring at her as she sat fixed her hair, her deft hands flying through the blond strands as she fixed back into the same ponytail she had had previously, lying over her shoulder. Her blue eyes looked up and caught his, and she blushed immediately, smiling shyly. Lunch passed for the most part in conversation, each getting to know the other.

"So… What do you want to do once we've eaten? Head down to the beach maybe?" She suggested.

"Why not. If you think that's something I should see in Mossdeep then definitely."

"I think that anyone who comes to Mossdeep ought to see the beaches, and I think that you should see them with me because I know all the places that won't be swamped with people, and some that won't have any, and how to get there." Victoria smiled, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms.

"Then that it is. If we're passing by the Pokemon center though would you mind terribly if I left this there?" he asked, gesturing at his backpack.

"Not at all." Victoria smiled sweetly, leading him back out and to the Pokemon center once they were done with their food.

She walked into the building with him and to his room where he left his bag and checked to make sure his staff was still on his leg. Once he had confirmed that it was still there, and hadn't moved an inch, they departed.

"So Mossdeep's beaches are sectioned into pieces in some places by trees, and while they're all accessible, most people don't like walking over a few rocks, or the seclusion of such spots. But they're the perfect place to just sit, relax, hang out, and watch the sunset. There's one that I don't think anyone else knows about where Blake, our eldest sister, Alexandra, Steven and I come when we want to spend time on the beach. We've strung up a few hammocks and left some things there." Victoria explained happily, hiking up a small ledge with trees at the edge. "Come through this way. There's a really easy path to take down here to our personal little section of the beach."

Ethan followed her up the rocks and to the edge of the trees, slipping through a gap wide enough for a person and a bag, and followed her down to a dirt path with led down a grassy slope to a roughly square section of beach between thick group of trees on either side. It was fairly sized, about some six or seven hundred square feet and secluded from the rest of the beaches. Ethan noticed three hammocks strung up in various places between the trees and an ice box under one of them, along with a large, flat case.

"I knew I forgot it here!" Victoria leaped at the case, taking it out and opening it to reveal a thin, hollow bodied electric guitar with a black back and a lovely blue on the front, rimmed by black. "I couldn't find it last night. We left here in a hurry, hence the forgotten ice box, and this."

"Well, at least you found it." Ethan smiled, sitting down on one of the hammocks.

"Catch." She plucked two cans out of the ice box and tossed one over to him, sitting down on a nearby hammock opposite him with her guitar. He snatched it out of the air deftly, popping it open and drinking.

Balancing herself on the hammock, Victoria fixed the tuning on the guitar, and pulling a pick out of her phone's case, she began to play.

Ethan grinned, recognizing the tune to his favorite song and sat back, listening. He waited until the right moment and then started singing when the point came about, surprising Victoria. She looked up at him, but kept on playing, a genuine happy smile on her face. A few minutes passed as they went through the song, wrapping it up.

"You have a good singing voice." She remarked, fooling around with her pick.

"And you're a great musician, but my voice only works with that one song." Ethan shrugged, leaning back in the hammock. He felt happy that there had been a real connection for those few moments where they were working in tandem, and he was so much gladder that he had met Victoria, even if there was a high chance he wouldn't see much of her after he left.

"Look out." He called out suddenly as she was setting the guitar down.

He leapt from the hammock and into the air, his hand already reaching for his pokeballs, picking Typhlosion's off and maximizing it in a flash. He released the Pokemon into the air, the white light coalescing into its sleek body.

"Brick Break!" He shouted, watching the aquatic Pokemon – almost as tall as he was with its large fins, glistening white underbelly, coarse navy hide and massive snout open wide displaying rows of teeth filed to points – shoot out of the wake and towards them, jaws open and water forming in its mouth.

Before it could attack however, Typhlosion took care of it by slamming it's paw into the water type's underbelly and sending it straight back out to sea, resulting in the water gun hitting the waves uselessly.

"Follow up with focus blast and solar beam!" He called out, noting how effective the fighting type move seemed to be on the Pokemon.

Typhlosion charged its attack as it plummeted back down, landing on all fours and firing a rust colored glowing sphere into the ocean, cutting a small wave apart and hitting the Pokemon square in its snout. Typhlosion followed up by taking advantage of the sunny day and firing off a pre-emptive solar beam so as to give the Pokemon one last warning.

The injured and (in spirit) defeated Pokemon sank back into the ocean, its shadow visible as it loitered for a moment before it returned to lurking in the depths of the ocean.

Ethan didn't even register that he had his staff in his hand, fully expanded and ends whirring and sparking, poised to fight. With a start he collapsed it, clipping it back onto his leg.

He turned around towards Victoria, from whose face a look of mild shock was disappearing. She stepped up to him before he knew what happened and wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him. Ethan started for a moment again, returning the gesture.

"Thank you. I don't know what to say except you were amazing, reacting like that. I guess you're my hero now." She smiled, biting her lip as she stepped back.

"It's my honor." Ethan replied, looking her in the eye and then at her left foot – she had kicked off her shoes a while back – which was bleeding. "You cut yourself on something. That's probably what it smelt. Let me."

Ethan sat her down, and taking a bit of cold water from a bottle and a handkerchief from his pocket, cleaned away the little bit of blood on her foot for her.

"Thank you." She replied once he was done. "You didn't have to do that. I could have done it on my own."

"Don't worry about it" Ethan replied, wrapping her heel in it so that neither her sock nor any dirt on it would bother the cut. "By the way. This is my first Pokemon. Typhlosion, meet Victoria. She's a new friend of mine."

"His coat's so sleek on one hand, and then he's just outright strong on the other!" She smiled, running a hand down Typhlosion's back as the fire type lay down next to her.

"That he is. We've been friends for a long time now, since he was a little Cyndaquil, and we've come a long ways from there." Ethan remarked, scratching he fire type's back as it lay down in the sand near them.

Typhlosion made a sort of growling noise in agreement, coming back to Ethan.

"What, you don't like the sea?" He laughed, recalling Typhlosion as it turned to the waves and then back to him, frowning.

"What's it like?" Victoria asked suddenly, leaning forward in her hammock as Ethan sat down once more. "Traveling?"

Ethan looked up with a start, his eyes moving from the sand to meet Victoria's.

"It depends on what you're doing I guess. For me, as someone who's always wanted to be a trainer, traveling Johto has been the best time of my life so far; meeting new people on occasion, traveling with my Pokemon and learning more about them as the days go by – and more about myself for that matter – is something that appeals to me. I don't mind roughing it, going on foot despite the fact that I have a bike. It really depends on you I guess, and what you want to do."

"While I'm happy here, I've always wanted to see the rest of Hoenn from a traveler's perspective rather than a tourist's. Actually walk the land and see Hoenn itself rather than just go to say Slateport, see the tourist hotspots and return – Mind you I wouldn't mind that either." She added, leaning back in the hammock and staring at the leaves above.

"The thing about traveling on foot it's not really safe without Pokemon." Ethan admitted, "Almost all paths to travel and see the region itself as you say would go through wilderness inhabited by nothing but wild Pokemon."

"And there's the problem. I don't have any Pokemon of my own." She sighed.

The next few hours passed in a flash; discussions, jokes, songs, hopes. Ethan rose out of the hammock at around five in the evening, wanting to take a shower before they headed to Steven's place once more.

"I can't say I've had the chance to unwind for long since I was in New Bark, excluding the Nautilus, and this has been a lot of fun. I think I'll head back to the Pokemon center, clean up and rest for a bit until dinner. I'll see you there?"

"See you then." She replied, picking up her guitar and case and walking with him out of the area to the streets, where they parted.

Ethan walked back to the Pokemon center, cleaning up and making his way back to Steven's house afterwards. He didn't know for sure who all was going to be there apart from Victoria's older sisters, and of course Steven, or if there was going to be anyone other than those three over there.

Ethan found himself back at the north western edge of the island, standing at the wooden door of Steven's house. The door was set into a verandah, with the driveway going under the building next to them. Parked in it was a sleek silver Lexus, – the one Blake had driven away in – a gleaming red spoiler less Pagani Huayra and Steven's bicycle. Ethan stepped up to the wooden door with its small sections of stained glass and looked around. Not seeing a bell, he lifted the knocker and hit it against the door twice. Instead of the sound of metal on wood, he heard what sounded akin to a bell.

The door opened a few moments later, to Steven standing behind it in blue dress shirt, black trousers and dress shoes. Suddenly Ethan was glad he had though to dress up a bit before he left, looking down for a second at his own outfit: a pale yellow shirt and black trousers.

"I hope you enjoyed your first day in Mossdeep. The city has much to offer." Steven smiled, leading him in. "Including a gym."

"I do believe I saw it, even if I haven't challenged it. I actually spent the day with Blake's younger sister."

"So you saw the Mossdeep Space Institute then?

"Yep. It's an interesting place to say the least." Ethan remarked, walking into the lounge, where seated on various couches were Blake, Victoria, and an older sibling to the duo, with green eyes, whom Ethan didn't recognize.

"Clara, I believe you're the only one who hasn't met Ethan?" Steven looked around to an affirmative nod, at which Ethan stepped forward.

"Ethan Photon, Newbark Town in Johto. I'm a trainer on a journey who got dragged here by yours truly," Ethan began, gesturing to Steven, "When Kalos attacked us. But let's ignore that for now."

"Clara Wilson. I'm Blake and Victoria's older sister, and the man next to you is my fiancée." The oldest girl shifted in her seat, a glittering diamond ring visible on her finger. "I so wanted to meet Steven's protégée. It's nice to put a face to the name."

"Thank you very much. Despite the fact that I have no idea how long you've been engaged to Steven, I'll say congratulations to the both of you." Ethan looked down for a second then found and place and sat down, Steven next to Clara.

"Let's eat dinner first, and discuss the plan for evolving your Scyther, if we're still doing that."

"For sure." Ethan contemplated discussing Dewott, but decided to refrain from branching off onto unstable ground for the time being as they shifted to a dining room with three glass walls, overlooking the ocean. Dinner passed fairly quickly, with general conversation, and the discussion of the evolution technique.

"So one thing that people don't really pay attention to when triggering a metal coat evolution is that the metal coat isn't the shape of the body of the Pokemon, which can hinder it's development later on, so what we're going to do is have Metagross put a psychic shell around Scyther, remove Scyther, and then basically fill in the melted metal of the metal coat to make a form fitting coat which allows a full range of motion, so that when the evolution is triggered, nothing is restraining it." Steven explained, putting the tips of his fingers together.

"Let's do it." Ethan replied, picking up his plate and putting it in the sink with the others.

With a nod, Steven led the group outside, releasing Metagross. The supercomputer of a Pokemon summoned a mesh of metal plates, something that looked like it was cast off of an Aggron, and then set it down. Ethan reached for his belt and released Scyther, staring at Metagross.

"So Scyther… It's finally time to evolve… Are you ready for this?" Ethan asked, looking the bug Pokemon in the eye. Without a moment's hesitation, it nodded. "Then let Metagross do what its doing and we'll get on with it."

Scyther moved away a few feet and stiffened in its stance, apparently communicating with Metagross. It changed position, moving a few times as Metagross analyzed it, before it stopped in a certain position. Ethan noticed the glimmer of a psychic barrier, forming a tight shell around Scyther. A second later Scyther was out of the shell, and Metagross was working with it presumably.

The metal rose into the air above where the shell would be and started to bubble, boiling slowly until it melted and poured into an invisible mold, taking on the shape of a slightly larger Scyther, and then immediately started to let off steam as Metagross cooled it down.

Ethan stood there, facing the ocean, the house behind him and the stars above him. Metagross simply let the shell cool for a few minutes, before Scyther disappeared and reappeared inside of the shell, blinking rapidly for a moment before it tried to move. Lo and behold, it could.

"What's going to happen now is that instead of trying to battle, which is the traditional method of triggering an evolutionary reaction, because it doesn't work we'll try pumping energy into Scyther until the energy either expels itself as an attack or triggers the evolution." Steven explained, looking at Scyther as its eyes began to glow, next to Metagross. "We still haven't figured out exactly why that works though. It's one of those mysteries of the world."

' _Like the silver ring and Dewott.'_ Ethan thought, nodding, as a few minutes passed. Then it started. Slowly, the metal began to heat up again, the air around Scyther shimmering as the metal began to glow white, instead of red hot, until the glow enveloped the bug.

Ethan shielded his eyes until the glow died down, and left in place of the metal coated Scyther a gleaming red Pokemon with yellow eyes, a narrow waist, large abdomen and poised legs with a single silver spike toe at the bottom of each. Its wings were different too, now much thinner, split in two, and off white instead of cream, despite the fact that they were pretty close to transparent. The biggest changes were that in place of its blades were two massive pincers with yellow eye like patterns on either side which made them look like heads.

Ethan stepped up to his Pokemon, placing a hand on its shoulder and looked it in the eye.

"We've come a long way buddy. From home, and from where we started. And I sincerely hope you stay with me the rest of the way." He smiled, getting a sense of recognition from Scizor as the bug type nodded silently, looking out to the stars with him. They had indeed come a long way, and they had yet ways to go.


	15. Back on the Road

**Chapter 15: Back on the Road**

 **A/N: Okay so side note… I'm going to** _ **not**_ **reply to reviews if there's nothing to address in them or reply to. I mean there's only so many times I can say something along the lines of 'thanks' or 'no spoilers'. Other side note… I do in my notes us levels to keep track of strength (roughly) but they can exceed one hundred indefinitely. An estimate here is that Typhlosion in this chapter is level fifty. Branching off of that is that evolution however is not necessarily by level. So a starter could be level forty and not have felt the urge to evolve for the second time. Moving on. Took a break for a while. Work. Winter vacation. Birthday. Meeting friends and family. Being used as a punching bag by jetlag. Fun stuff. In any case, I'm back! Enjoy! Spironax.**

…

"Olivine is under control, and right now Lance is planning to crush the remaining Kaloasian forces over the course of the next couple of months. What he let slip though is quite interesting. He's planning to hold the Indigo Conference, as in the one with a sixteen badge requirement normally, as soon as that's been done, open to anyone who collected _any eight_ badges instead of all sixteen in the year before the attack on Olivine, to collect a larger crop of fresh Ace Trainers. What he was gunning for was to take the usual amount as ordinary Ace Trainers who start off as apprentices in foreign regions, and about the same number, maybe a few more, who finished below this crop, to start as trainees to keep the forces strong. While he prefers to act like a hammer instead of a sword, he knows how to think. Defeating Kalos's standing forces in Indigo won't finish this all. They'll return very quickly." Steven grimaced, setting down his cup.

"I see how it's interesting but I fail to see where this ties in to me if you're not letting me return right now. Besides, the gyms will be closed to help with the effort even if I was there." Ethan replied, crossing his arms.

"If you can collect four Hoenn badges, at your current level, I'm fairly sure Lance would be willing to give you audiences with Claire and Pryce at my behest so that you could compete." He explained, Clara talking to Victoria and Blake on the side.

"I see how this is shaping up but a question. Why four?"

"We could try with two since you have six, but four is a good balance between experience and amount of time spent because I'll plot you through four specific gyms on your route. That leaves you stronger, and us with a good deal of time to train. Let's get started." With that the champion stood up, going away for a second and returning with a map of Hoenn, which he promptly spread across the table.

Ethan stared at the map on the table, standing next to Steven. Steven reached out and circled four cities, each with a star made above them afterwards.

"So the four gyms you'd challenge would be Mossdeep, Sootopolis, Mauville… and either Petalburg or Lavaridge." With which he gestured to Mossdeep, a walled island in the middle of the ocean, a large city near the south west coast line, and two small cities in the far west, one north, one south. "Mossdeep is run by psychic twins Tate and Liza, Sootopolis by the strongest gym leader and master coordinator of Hoenn, Wallace, a genius with water. Mauville is run by Watson, a jolly old fellow whose hobby is tinkering with the city's electric systems. Petalburg is run by Norman-"

"Norman Maple?" Ethan asked, putting his hands on the table.

"How did you know?" Steven stared at him, bewildered.

"He moved from Goldenrod. His son's one of my best friends." Ethan replied, looking at him sheepishly. "Sorry, go on." 

"Normal, master of normal types. The thing is he's radically different from Whitney. With him you'll find yourself in a tough battle with someone who thinks like a chess player. And intimidating chess player as I'm sure you know." He added dryly, "Lavaridge is in some ways a better choice because you haven't taken on a fire type gym, but the gym leader, Flannery, is admittedly inexperienced. She's new to the job. Out of those two it's your choice."

"I'll say from a tactical standpoint after our discussions of what you have and haven't encountered in terms of battle to not take on Tate and Liza immediately. Morty was one person commanding two Pokemon which some people do on occasion. The tricky bit with Tate and Liza isn't that they're two independent minds with independent Pokemon, it's that they're entirely synced. They've been doing this since they were about seven. That's four years." He explained, moving the pencil away from Mossdeep. "You take your pick and then I'll start with a route."

"I think I'll take on Petalburg. It gives me a chance to meet my friend for a little bit." Ethan decided, looking at the map.

"Alright. We'll start off by teleporting you there first thing in the morning before I head off to the League. From there, you can travel through Oldale, not much of a walk, and cross a small lake to get to the north of Slateport. You can take the bike route or the low road to Mauville from there. Mauville to Mossdeep… I'd like for you to travel north east from Mauville and go through what some consider the depths of Hoenn's wilderness, see its beauty, and go to Fortree City. There are tournaments held there from time to time, and the gym leader, Winona, can help you out with flying on your Dragonair or Dragonite, because from there I want you to fly to Mossdeep, then to Sootopolis."

"Gotcha. Thanks." Ethan quickly made notes in his phone, putting the device back in his pocket and looking towards the others. "I'll be off then. Nice to meet you Clara. Thanks for dinner Steven."

"Thanks for coming. By the way Ethan," Steven stopped him in the doorway, "You've got… six weeks to do this, then training starts. Ask for your teleport at the Pokemon center. I'll issue it right now."

"Yes sir." Ethan replied, walking out and back to the Pokemon center. Once he was back in his room he stopped to think for a minute. Doing the first thing that came to his mind, he pulled out his phone and left a message for Brendan, before changing and going to bed.

…

Morning came sooner than he had expected it, rays of sunshine waking Ethan up to read six in the morning off of the clock on the wall. He groaned, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. The membrane behind the bed wasn't fully opaque if seemed. He picked up his things slowly and went off to shower, getting himself dressed in a red sweatshirt and trousers before heading out to the lobby of the Pokemon center with his pokeballs on his belt and his bag on his back.

He pulled his ID out and walked up to the nurses' station, waiting until one of the three counters other than emergency was open. It took fifteen minutes, in which time he had a small back and forth with his mother and sisters over text, checking on them, as well as one with Brendan. As he approached the front of the line, a headline on one of the flat screens on the wall caught his eye. He read the stripe at the bottom of the screen and stared at the image of the burning trees and destroyed road.

 _New Bark Town latest to fall victim to Kaloasian attacks_

He took a deep breath, thanking the lord that his family was in Unova, and walked up to the nurse.

"Hi, I believe there's a teleport to Petalburg city waiting for me, Ethan Photon." He handed over his ID as the nurse typed away with one hand, holding the card up to the light with the other.

"Right this way sir." She said after a moment, handing him the card back and opening the side door into the counter area.

He stepped inside oddly curious as to what the center looked like from the point of view of the nurses. Once he was inside, the nurse stood him on a glowing white pad with a wide metal rim and typed away once more, leading Ethan to wonder how it worked, or what was going on.

A few seconds passed as he stood there uncomfortably, more than a few of the trainers in the lines looking at him curiously. Finally, with a light folding sensation, he saw the center disappear and reappear, only different. He took a look around as the nurse in front of him, a different one, instructed him to step of the pad. Moving forward and stepping out of the counter, he looked around. The new Pokemon center he was in was a smaller establishment, and certainly not as tropical as the one in Mossdeep. Simple white walls, couches and TV's made up the lobby, along with two corridors branching off.

"Welcome to Petalburg City Mr. Photon. Would you like a room?"

"That I would." Ethan replied, putting a hand over his mouth as he coughed lightly.

"106. End of the corridor." The man handed him the keys to the room, turning to the next person in line.

"Thank you very much." Ethan headed off towards the small corridor, whistling all the way to the end of the six room corridor where he was situated. He opened the door and walked into a small room with two beds and no other tenants.

He set his bag down on the plain white bed with its neat folds and looked out the window at the small lake nearby with benches around it and old people feeding Tailow. It was a nice homely place from the feel of it. The serenity of the moment was ruined by a buzzing in his pocket which made him jump a foot into the air.

He opened the message from Brendan and typed out a reply, leaving the room immediately to head outside. He stepped into bright sunshine, though nowhere near as warm as Mossdeep, and walked off to the pond nearby, releasing his team to stand with him to discuss the time to come. He had caught a glimpse of the other corridor in the establishment and knew that it was too small a place to have a training area. There had been a cafeteria and an ICU or two at that end of the building.

Ethan looked around and headed for the nearest tree. Having found himself a spot, he sat down and released his Pokemon in a ring around him. Riolu and Dewott immediately went to each other's sides, a sight which made Ethan smile. Specter was floating about in the shadow of the tree, red eyes and a grin like a Cheshire cat. Scizor looked around and took its place next to the tree, taking in the world around it. Knight slithered right into the water, disappearing from view until it pulled its head out. Typhlosion sat down on its haunches, rubbing its side against Ethan.

"So… We're in Petalburg City in Hoenn now. We're going to go challenge the local gym, because I personally feel we can take them on. We did a fair bit of training for Jasmine, and it's a normal type gym again. On top of that, it's Brendan's dad. For those of you who don't know, Brendan's a really good friend of mine. In any case, what evens the footing out here despite the fact that we're battling on seven badge platform is that Mr. Maple's Pokemon are mostly very, very slow. They're really strong but they're also really slow. So I think we can manage this. After that it's a long training stint up until we reach Mauville City, where we challenge another gym leader, then a quite long stretch of no necessary to challenge gyms. In any case… For this battle, we'll see the format then I'll decide. The one thing I can say is that it won't be you Scizor, because a good few of his Slaking and Vigoroth's moves are fighting type, and it won't be you Gengar, because it's kind of a stalemate there. So let's do this!" Ethan cheered, raising a fist into the air, which was promptly met by Riolu's, and then Dewott's flipper.

"Nice." Ethan chuckled, recalling is Pokemon as he started to walk towards the building set into the forest in the north of the city. He walked into the main lobby to find a floored fighting or training ground set up with a door at either end of the far wall, signs fixed to them with nails.

Standing in the center of the field, conversing, were two close to identical people, save for their physiques and dress. To the left was a muscular, tall man with black hair brushed into a wide point downwards and long sideburns on a hard, pale face. His red quarter zip was open a bit from the top, revealing a navy vest to match his trousers. Opposite him was a shorter, stick thin version of him wearing glasses, with a navy and grey sweatshirt and white pants: Norman and Brendan Maple.

"Morning." Ethan called out with a grin, stepping forward.

"Buddy ol' pal o' mine! How's trekking across Johto on your own been treating you?" Brendan walked forward, pulling him into a one armed hug, the other grasping Ethan's other hand.

"It's been great honestly. Up until Olivine." Ethan's grin changed to a frown for a moment as he stepped back, shaking Norman's hand.

"It was all over the news. As was the attack this morning… Are Melissa and your sisters safe?" The tall man asked, folding his arms over his chest.

"They're in Unova with Lucy, so they're fine. We left the day of the Olivine attack." Ethan replied, turning to face them both. "Before anything else though, I want to put myself down as a challenger to the Petalburg City gym."

"Yes… Brendan mentioned this. How many badges do you have?" Norman frowned.

"Six from Johto. All but Pryce and Clair." He explained, folding his own arms.

"We'll cut to the chase then. Anyone with less than five has to go through the rooms beyond and make it past trainers who specialize in a certain statistic, such as attack or speed. That and the wooden floor in my chamber may not be solid enough for when I have to go all out with Slaking. So this will be treated as a battle for a seventh badge then." Norman gestured towards the man standing in the corner of the room at a desk. "Winslow, register the kid."

Ethan walked over to the man, putting down his details, and then walked back to the battlefield with its navy surface made to absorb attacks and its dull gold lining. The room itself was almost entirely wood panels otherwise.

"Where do you keep the chairs?" Brendan asked his dad, turning to him with an inquisitive look.

"Son. There isn't a single chair anywhere in this building except for the one built into Winslow's desk. Just stand on the sidelines." Norman sighed, moving to his box behind the field. The box itself was literally just an outline on the floor, dull gold and slightly raised like the patterns near the rim of the arena. Ethan stepped into his and looked at the field, waiting for someone to announce the rules.

"This contest will be three singles, full reveal. To win the badge, you have to take all three." Norman called out, picking three pokeballs off of his belt right off the bat and releasing them into the outline of the arena. The navy surface had a golden rectangle about two feet from the rim, and other patterning between the rim and the golden rectangle.

Standing there were what Ethan recognized as his Vigoroth, or one of them, one of his Slaking, and a large purple Pokemon with yellow tipped spokes coming out of its head and large hind legs upon which it sat with holes in them.

"Use of Brendan's database is allowed because I have knowledge of Johto's Pokemon as well as Hoenn's." Norman called out as Ethan quickly scanned the unknown Pokemon, revealing it to be a Loudred, a Pokemon which was very effective as using noise to fight.

Ethan reached for his belt and called out his own Pokemon, summoning Typhlosion, Knight, and then Riolu. Riolu stared the opposition down for a moment with a grin, and then decided to then and there surprise them all. White light enveloped the cub as it knelt, expanding until the golden patterning on the trainer's boxes began to glow and sent up walls of flickering gold energy to shield their eyes from the brightness.

When the glow died down, left kneeling in Riolu's place was a Lucario, with its poised tail, light fur for its torso and spikes added, as well as a new type and steel bones.

' _Trainer, I believe I may be of much greater help than anticipated here. I have acquired? Been imbued rather, with knowledge on other techniques which would deal a great deal of damage to the behemoth. Namely extreme speed and bone rush, a specialty of our kind.'_ A deep baritone voice sounded in Ethan's head, grave with a hint of humor, as Lucario rose, staring down Slaking.

"That was… unexpected…. Regardless, congratulations! You've gone from egg to Lucario. This is great!" Ethan smiled, taking in the sight of the Pokemon he had indeed raised from egg to evolution. "I definitely think we can do this now, if I didn't before."

"As a courtesy for a battler from a foreign region, I won't make you choose first, but I will ask that you call forth your Pokemon at the same time as I do." Norman raised an eyebrow.

"Duly noted." Ethan replied, grinning as he looked at his Pokemon. Typhlosion Knight and Lucario. They were the bulkier ones in his team, able to take hits as strong as they could dish out. Scizor could too, but bulky didn't fit Scizor, and in this case fighting type moves could deal serious damage to it.

"Both trainers call forth Pokemon on the count of four, and the battle will commence. Ready?" Ethan had to stifle a laugh for a moment as he recalled Brendan's pet peeve: the number three. "One…. Two… Four!"

"Typhlosion!" He called forward, eying the field carefully as Norman's Vigoroth leaped onto the field to challenge the quiet fire type. "Flame wheel!"

The fire type spun forward, not wasting any time. On another day, with another gym leader, Ethan might have made a joke about how fast it went from zero to sixty, but not today. Norman was always had high standards for young trainers, and considering he was quite literally the same age as his son, he would be seen as a kid.

"Left!" Ethan called out once he spotted Vigoroth's muscles in motion propelling it left, and sure enough, careening violently left, Typhlosion slammed into it and sent it flying into a burst of gold energy which revealed the invisible wall.

"Fury swipes." Norman called out.

Vigoroth leapt forward, trying to hit Typhlosion repeatedly with its glowing claws, failing four of six times and striking it twice, once on the flank, once on the underbelly.

"Flame Charge! While you're still there!" Ethan called out as it grappled with Vigoroth, engulfing itself in flames.

Vigoroth's eyes widened as with all its strength Typhlosion flung the already burning Pokemon into the golden barrier and the slammed into it on the rebound, singing a good deal of its fur.

"Feint slash!" the gym leader ordered.

Vigoroth spun into action, throwing feigned attacks and then ducking back to avoid Typhlosion's flaming fangs and then finally hit it with a purple colored glowing slash. The blade hit Typhlosion on the side, sending it careening back as it skid five feet.

"Brick Break!"

Typhlosion caught Vigoroth off guard, slamming its paw into the normal type's gut hard, before following up by using another brick break to block its attack.

"Lava Plume!" Ethan shouted, noticing the bubbling on Typhlosion's back and deciding to use the excess secretion to his advantage.

Typhlosion stared at the pinned down Vigoroth with a gleam in its eyes and roared as lava cascaded out of its back, over it onto Vigoroth, which it released from its grip under the molten rock, jumping back to prepare the next strike.

"Focus Blast!" Ethan instructed.

Typhlosion stood on its hind legs, taking ample time to charge a large rust colored globule of energy the size of a basketball, starting in its mouth and moving just out of it. A beam of the same rust energy fed it from the center of the fire type's open mouth, and the second it was done, the beam dissipated and propelled the sphere forward to collide with and batter Vigoroth.

"Vigoroth! FRS!" Norman shouted, befuddling Ethan as Vigoroth slowly climbed back onto its feet, glaring at Typhlosion. Then all of a sudden, as though it had been sitting on a spring, it sprang forward, slamming its fist into the spot where Typhlosion had been, glowing purple.

Time seemed to slow down and a feral grin crawled onto Vigoroth's face as the glow disappeared and was replaced with a bronze one, and with its other fist and its legs, which were still in motion, it struck Typhlosion hard, and then the fist that had gone behind extended into its claws, began glowing and cut Typhlosion across the back, giving Vigoroth the chance to push off of Typhlosion's chest and jump to safety after dealing a hefty blow to the fire type.

"Solar Beam!" Ethan frowned, wanting to step it up a notch. He waited patiently as did Vigoroth for some odd reason, for the attack to charge up, and then waited until Typhlosion fired it off, hitting Vigoroth dead center.

"Follow up with flamethrower and focus blast!"

This time Vigoroth was moving, but it was dazed from the solar beam's blinding energy and it rushed forward to meet Typhlosion, getting burnt and then hit head on with Focus Blast. The combination of fire, and the massive focus blast sent smoke into the air, contained by the golden barrier, and when it dissipated, Vigoroth was unconscious.

"Set 1, challenger!" Came Brendan's voice as he tabbed it down, doing Winslow's job for the match as he scrawled onto a tablet, the data appearing on a television behind him, set into the wall. "Please select your next Pokemon and call it forward on four. Four."

"Knight." Ethan called out.

The long serpentine Pokemon slithered forward. This would be its first real contest alongside Ethan, and it would most definitely be interesting to see how it turned out.

"Exploud."

"Dragon Pulse!"

"Hyper Voice!" 

The two attacks cut right through one another, sound waves bypassing the blue disc pulse and hitting almost immediately. Knight coiled back as the sound hit it, hurting it indirectly. A second later the dragon pulse went straight into Exploud's open mouth, searing it and throwing it back into the golden barriers.

Knight shifted forward, beginning to levitate so as to facilitate easier movement across the field, the same way it flew across forests. The Dragonair was curled up in the air, waiting for a command as it allowed Exploud to regain its bearings.

"Exploud, use uproar!" Norman called out.

Exploud jumped into action right then and there, creating a noise loud enough that the barriers had to contain it's effects as the purple Pokemon stood there, leaning forward, low on its legs, its mouth open to its full extent.

"Knight! Extreme Speed and Aqua Tail!" Ethan called out, hands crossed over his chest as the noise finally died down.

Uproar would go on for a good while, but it didn't mean that Exploud was unable to move. Which was where Extreme Speed came in. The Dragonair disappeared from view for a millisecond, then it reappeared in a collision with Exploud which slammed it into the barriers with all the force of a jetliner crashing into it. Capping it off, Knight moved backwards, its tail coating itself in a thick lair of water, which it then slammed into Exploud.

In that instant, the second wave of Uproar sounded. Situated at such as close range, Knight took the brunt of the attack and was sent flying back into the barriers at the other end of the arena. Ethan couldn't hear the noise, but from what he could see he could tell it was loud enough to jar Knight and injure it, without the wall slam, which just made the dragon type dizzy.

"Boomburst!" Norman shouted, and this time Ethan heard a tiny bit of white noise as Knight was slammed flat against the barriers, held in position against them as Exploud let out everything in its lungs.

"Ice Fang and Hammer Arm!"

Norman had turned the tide of the set quickly as Exploud leaped forward, biting into the dragon type's flanks with freezing jaws. Knight cried out in pain as Exploud refused to remove its mouth from around the Dragonair's body, hammerings its fists into its side repeatedly.

"Knight! Dragon Breath, Dragon Tail and Aqua Jet!" Ethan shouted out as Exploud continued its assault.

With an enraged cry, Knight released a stream of blue flames into the normal type's side. In order to react to the pain, Exploud let go of Dragonair. That was its mistake. From there Knight slammed its tail into Exploud, glowing a deep indigo, and threw Exploud into the air, where it shot up itself, coated in water as it collided with Norman's Pokemon, sending it into the golden film protecting the roof.

"Exploud! Ice beam!" Norman shouted as the purple Pokemon plummeted to the ground, not landing on its feet.

In a flash, a beam of icy blue energy crystalizing the air around it shot out at Knight.

"Get out of the way Knight!" Ethan shouted, as Knight barely managed to avoid taking the hit, still getting clipped on its flank by the attack, where ice started to form.

"Match it with your own!" He instructed, tensing slightly as Knight prepared and launched an ice beam, met with, clipping Exploud on the leg and freezing the sound hole on it.

Ethan grinned as he had an epiphany, relaxing.

"Aim for its mouth and the other sound hole on its leg!" He shouted, watching as Norman's eyes widened across the field. The gym leader tried to shout a command but it was too late. Knight had angled the attack towards Exploud's mouth and pinned it to the barrier, where ice solidified and closed off the cavity, then to its leg. 

The side effect of closing both its legs was that they were frozen in that position because of the lack of flexibility.

"Exploud! Boomburst!" Norman commanded, crossing his arms.

A second passed and nothing happened.

"Extreme speed!" Ethan shouted out, and the Dragonair struck, coiling back after. The second it moved back, Boomburst shot into the arena, ice exploding from Exploud's mouth and knees and hitting Knight square on.

Somehow Knight had managed to hold its position through the attack, and with cringing eyes, ended the onslaught with a well-placed aqua tail, knocking Exploud out.

"Set two, Challenger! Please engage your remaining Pokemon on the count of four. One, two, four!" Brendan called out.

"Lucario." Ethan called out, watching as the five foot tall fighter stepped forward onto the field determinedly, ready to take on the behemoth that was Norman's Slaking. Six foot seven, and probably somewhere around three hundred pounds, its attacks packed quite the punch.

"Lucario, watch out for its attacks. Aura Pulse, Extreme Speed and Bone Rush!" He called out, watching as Lucario executed the attack flawlessly in that exact order. A glowing blue sphere the size of a watermelon slammed into Slaking's gut, pushing it inwards, and then in a flash, Lucario slammed into it as well, hitting the lounging Pokemon hard.

In another second it was a step back and there was a glowing bone of sorts, presumably made of aura, in its paws, with which it hit Slaking four times.

"Chip away!" Norman finally called out, and Slaking raised a single fist and slammed it into Lucario, hitting it hard. As a Riolu, it would have been thrown into the wall, but it's much greater weight, height and of course its steel bones allowed it to bear the attack without moving an inch, even if it hurt just as much.

Slaking had risen to its feet and threw two more punches, one of which struck Lucario on the side, the other missing entirely. Then it just collapsed back onto its side, hand supporting its head as it watched its opponent lazily.

"Lucario, how're you doing? I have no idea about how to gauge your status now that you've evolved." 

' _I'll be fine. For now let us focus on the battle. We have to win this set also do we not?'_ Lucario changed its stance, ready to attack again as it shrugged off the dizziness from the herculean punches.

"Focus Blast!" Ethan instructed, watching as Slaking allowed the attack to charge to the size of an average tire and then hit it, right in the face.

' _That thing really doesn't seem so daunting considering it just sits there.'_ Ethan thought to himself. That was proven wrong the second Focus Blast hit it.

Slaking rose to its feet, using its knuckles to support its weight and leaped at Lucario, slamming into it with a fist before it could blink and sending it crashing into the wall. Ethan realized he was holding his breath as he watched the six and a half foot tall beast lumber back over to where it had been sitting and collapse once more. So much for not daunting.

"Slaking! Slack off!" Norman called, leaving Ethan perplexed while Lucario rose to its feet, wiping dirt off of its face.

' _It's recuperating.'_ The aura Pokemon pointed out, fixing its eyes on Slaking.

"Then we should to. Drain Punch right now and interrupt it." Ethan instructed, watching as Lucario shot off and slammed a glowing rust colored paw into Slaking, spike and all. Everything seemed to freeze for a second as Slaking actually grimaced, streams of orange energy flowing up Lucario's arm and dissipating into its body as it sucked out the energy Slaking was miraculously recovering.

Lucario took initiative and slammed its other palm into Slaking's abdomen, using Force Palm, and then hitting it with low kick while it was still absorbing energy.

"Finish with reversal!" Ethan called out, cringing as Lucario shifted both its paws, done absorbing energy, and with one swift move, swung Slaking into the air and then the ground on its other side, dashing back to its post near Ethan.

"Slaking! Use Hammer Arm!" Norman called out as Lucario approached to hit it with another attack. The steel type's eyes widened as it tried to move out of the way too late, Slaking's massive fist slamming into Lucario and injuring itself upon Lucario's spikes. Nonetheless, the attack flung Lucario into a barrier, where it slid to the ground, getting to its feet after a second.

Ethan mused for a moment, giving Lucario a second to recover as Slaking made its way back to its old position and collapsed on its side, as it had done so many times.

"Focus Blast, Aura Sphere and Drain Punch."

Ethan tensed once more as Lucario gathered the energy needed for a focus blast, firing off the orange sphere, then immediately after, following a foot behind, a blue one, and leaped forward, shielded by the two attacks. Focus Blast slammed into Slaking's face, and Aura Sphere its lower abdomen, followed by Lucario hitting its chest with Drain Punch and jumping back, getting hit thrice by Chip Away in the process.

Lucario slid to a stop moving backwards on one knee, facing Slaking down after a second, near the barriers on the west side.

"Slaking! Hyper Beam!" Norman called out, pulling a final trick out.

Slaking sat there, its mouth shifting slowly to reveal a toothy grin, through which a white light was visible, before it's jaws opened and it unleased onto the field a blinding white beam of energy, hitting golden spasms of energy all along the borders as it chased Lucario, cornering and hitting it square on right before the attack ran out of energy.

Lucario fell to the ground, lying there for a moment before slowly getting up as Slaking cringed, fixed in position after the attack.

"Follow it with Extreme Speed, Bone Rush and Close Combat!" Ethan instructed, watching Lucario rush across the field and strike, then form a bone in its hands and hit Slaking dead on, five of five times.

Close Combat turned Lucario into a blur, creating waves in Slaking's body with the numerous hits it dealt to put Slaking down, knocking it over onto its back before leaping into the air and firing off an aura sphere at it.

Slaking rose to its feet a few minutes later, facing the panting Lucario at the opposite end of the field, and rushed forward, ready to attack with all its might,

"Lucario! Plan C!" Ethan shouted out, watching as Lucario disappeared for but a second as Slaking lumbered closer.

Slaking was a foot away from Lucario when it suddenly froze, mid charge, and collapsed on the field, Lucario ducking out of its way. The aura Pokemon had charged with extreme speed and unleashed a close combat at the last second, finishing it with a drain punch to siphon energy in case Slaking withstood the attack.

"Slaking is unable to battle! The challenger has in a battle for a seventh badge, defeated Petalburg City Gym Leader Norman Maple to earn the Balance Badge!" Brendan called out as Ethan walked over to Lucario, stepping onto the field.

"You were amazing out there! Get some rest! You deserve it!" Ethan grinned, rubbing Lucario's fur to a silent nod of acknowledgment before recalling his Pokemon.

"Congratulations Ethan. You've done well on your journey." Norman shook his hand, placing in it a badge.

"You expected me to win?" Ethan asked, looking down at the badge in his hand. Two dark grey circles with beveled edges were joined by a beveled edged rectangle of the same color, their outward edges tinted purple, each with wide, silver centers.

"The fact that you hopped to another region and started journeying again right after having to leave Johto was a good indicator." Norman greeted. "You earned it. Slaking takes a lot to beat."

"Lucario ought to be proud of what he's done today. I raised him from an egg you know." Ethan remarked as Brendan joined them.

"Well. I can definitely say that you've been taking your journey seriously. No six trainer challenger has beaten dad yet. I mean there've only been four, but still." Brendan interjected

"Still, a good job, and you've raised Lucario very well then. What are you up to next might I ask?" Norman remarked.

"Traveling to Mauville City, taking on Watson, then off to Fortree, Mossdeep and Sootopolis."

"Not seeing all of Hoenn while you're here?" Norman raised an eyebrow at his slightly odd route, noting the prominent gyms along the way.

"I have six weeks to do this. Then down to training with a mentor for a while." Ethan explained simply, checking his watch.

"Well, I wish you the best of luck on your journey. Hoenn really is a beautiful place, and if you're traveling by land, Mauville to Fortree is one of the most beautiful and untouched places in Hoenn to go through, quite rich wilderness."

"I look forward to it then. If I may say so Mr. Maple that was a tough battle." Ethan replied, turning to face Brendan.

"Think you have the time to drop by the house, hang out for a while?" Brendan asked, tossing something up and down in his hands.

"Depends on how long it would take to get there, and how long from there to…. Route 103." Ethan asked, checking his watch. It was around ten in the morning.

"So… I've got the car for the day," Brendan began, walking towards the door with him and dangling a key from his forefinger as Norman went about his daily business, "Which means from here to Littleroot where we live," He pointed to the map Ethan had open, "Is about half an hour, then up to route 103… I can get you to the edge of the route, but I can't get you any further, about half an hour again. No routes go through there. If you want to bike there from Littleroot, it's about an hour."

"Why not. I just need to heal my Pokemon and check out of the Pokemon center." Ethan shrugged.

"Being a gym leader has its perks. There's a link to the nearest Pokemon center. We can send your Pokemon from the house and receive them there as well." Brendan explained as they approached the car, a simple silver sedan.

"Meet me outside the Pokemon center." Ethan said, walking down to the building and entering. He made his way to his room as his phone started buzzing randomly.

He pulled it out of his pocket as he walked into the room and gathered his things, frowning as he read the message on the screen.

 _The Indigo League to remain parallel with its fellow regions has updated trainer ID formats. Please turn in your old ID at your nearest Pokemon center desk for recycling AFTER collecting your new ID from your storage account. Thank you._

Ethan furrowed his brow as he dug out the small silver strip that was his ID and looked at it, wondering why on earth it was deemed necessary to change trainer ID's at this time, in the midst of a war. He made his way to the lone withdrawal and deposit unit in a little cubicle off to the left corner of the building, going up to it and scanning his trainer ID. As far as he knew, there wouldn't be anything apart from the trainer card in it.

He was right. Opening the plain interface, he found one item deposited in the entire system, which he proceeded to withdraw. He turned to the circular pad next to the machine and watched as blue card appeared on it, picking it up. It was the same size and shape as the average credit card, and made out of the same material, a slightly transparent aqua blue radiating from the bottom left corner, a shadow stripe running across the bottom with the word badges in silver, and the six Johto badges he had etched into the same silver. The pattern of the Indigo Crest, in dark blue and silver, partially cut off, dominated the right side, and a cut ribbon of the same blue hue ran across the top, one side bearing his name, the other his ID number, both in silver. The left side, for the most part plain, had a single silvery chip in it, again akin to those in credit cards, and on the other side of the card was a magnetic stripe to match.

"Well, I can't say it doesn't look nice." He muttered to himself as he walked up to the nurses' station.

"Hi, I'm from Indigo, and our trainer cards were just changed, and I was wondering if it's possible for me to hand in my old one for recycling here, or do I need to do that in Indigo?" He asked, holding up the silver tag.

"Here's fine. It's not just Indigo. If I understand correctly, this has been in the process of being finalized for quite a few months now." The nurse smiled, taking the silver piece out of his hand and slipping it into a bin. "Thank you. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Yes, I'd like to check out of my room, Ethan Photon." He handed over his new card, which the man promptly scanned and handed back to him.

"Thank you sir, and have a good day."

"You too." Ethan smiled briefly as he walked out the door, looked around for the sedan and climbed into the passenger seat, Brendan behind the wheel.

"What took you so long? I thought you were just going to check out of your room." He remarked as he shifted the car into gear, driving off towards the main road to Oldale.

"I was, then I got notice from the Indigo League that we had to pick up new ID's and recycle old ones." Ethan retorted, examining the card in the light before slipping it into the card slot in his phone's cover.

"Well, regardless, how's it been the last few weeks, or however long it's been since we were last in touch?" Brendan turned sharply, Ethan thanking Arceus he had remembered to wear his seatbelt.

"I've been stranded in the Whirl Islands for something around a day, and I've gotten two more badges, and of course I've escaped here." He shrugged, turning towards him. "Yourself?" 

"Studying. Working on an application for an internship at Devon. Things along that line." He replied as the car swerved violently to the right.

"Good luck."

"I could say the same. Hoenn's gym leaders are some of the toughest there are. But then again, you just took down my father, so what can I say."

…

Four in the afternoon…

Ethan stopped pedaling and folded away his bike staring at the sign in front of him. Route 103 was a foot away, and from what he could see, it wasn't going to be difficult to traverse. For the most part it was made up of tall grass, a few ups and downs, ledges, and surrounded by trees.

A small winged Pokemon, white with a few blue lines and a yellow beak, flew overhead. Ethan scanned it quickly before it rose too high to make sure he knew what it was, identifying it as a common Pokemon known as Wingull, which generally stayed near water. That meant there was a large body of water nearby, at least larger than pond.

He began the simple trek up through the tall grass, keeping his eye out for wild Pokemon. He saw a few that were quickly identified as Poocheyena and Zigzagoons, but simply avoided them, making his way around ledges and all the sort to reach the far end of what was Route 103. At least as far as he could see.

He walked for about seven or eight kilometers, taking a bit under two hours, until he reached wide field with nothing but trees at the north end, and a large lake at the east side. He could see the lake stretching almost as far as he could see, and most likely far beyond it.

Frowning, he set down his pack and sat down. Dewott wasn't strong enough to carry him, and he couldn't swim for kilometers on end. Of his other Pokemon, Dragonair could possibly fly with him, but he was unsure of that. Looking around he saw no discernable way to make it there. Then he noticed the large island sitting smack in the middle of the lake. Situated there was an inn, not too large, with maybe ten to fifteen rooms, and a training ground out back. Ethan frowned. That was the first time he'd ever seen an inn with a training ground. 

Thinking off it, he realized he probably had, without registering it in Johto. Checking his watch and realizing it was around five in the evening, he decided that if he could figure out how he was to get there, he would see what the rate was for the night. He could stop, use the training ground and rest. He stared at the gap over the lake and resignedly called out Knight, staring at the dragon type. The twelve foot long serpentine Pokemon pressed its head against him lightly, making as sort of cooing noise before pulling back.

"So… Do you think you can fly me to that island over there Knight?" Ethan asked, gritting his teeth.

The Dragonair turned its head to follow his hand and stared at the inn, and its dock, glancing over at the edge of the water for a minute before slowly nodding.

"Great. Let's do that then, if it's possible, because otherwise we're not going to get anywhere." Ethan sighed, staring at Dragonair. It may have been long, but he doubted he would fit on it.

Knight seemed to have realized the same problem existed, and started cooing again trying to attract Ethan's attention.

"I know… I can't fly on you, and you need your tail free, so I can't be carried by you," Ethan sighed, finally looking at where the Dragonair was pointing.

Moored at the edge of the docks were two motorboats, one silver and one blue.

"That's brilliant! Can you go get someone from there?" Ethan asked, smiling.

Without a reply, Knight rose into the air and shot off towards the island, high in the clouds, arcing through the sky gracefully. A few seconds later it dove down and approached the inn, slithering to the main door and knocking its head on it.

Ethan turned to the sky for a moment, marveling at how it seemed to be nowhere near dark yet, even though he knew it would set around seven thirty.

His head snapped down at the sound of a motorboat starting up, Knight well on its way back to him.

"Good boy." Ethan smiled, scratching its head as he recalled it, flagging down the person in the motorboat.

The vehicle made a sharp turn, _'The Island Inn'_ glittering on its side in the sunlight as it moved towards him. Standing at the prow was a slim young, woman wearing an orange sundress. It took a few minutes, but the boat finally reached him, slowing to a stop about five feet away from the banks.

"Hop on." The woman smiled, fixing her long brown hair as she waited for him. 

Staring at the vessel for a second, Ethan tossed his bag onboard, moving back to take a running start. He went as fast as he could, jumping forward at the very last second. He landed inside the boat without an inch to spare. Had he been even a little bit slower, his foot would have caught on the edge and he would have fell face first onto the floor. As it was he landed on one knee, instinctively turning both ways before standing up.

"Headed for the inn?" The girl asked, smiling at him as she meticulously filed away at her nails with a small silver file, sitting on the dashboard.

"Yes please." Ethan replied, uncertain what to make of her.

"Be careful." She warned, getting off and turning the boat around, before gunning the throttle.

 _'I get the feeling she isn't an employee.'_ Ethan thought to himself as he stumbled, holding on to his bag and the edges of the ship tight. The sleek boat cut through the waters like a knife through warm butter, creating a narrow stream of ripples behind it as it neared the inn.

"Don't have any water Pokemon?" the girl shouted over the roar of the propeller.

"Not any large enough to carry me!" Ethan shouted back, heaving a sigh of relief as they slowed down, circling for a moment to cut speed before docking on one side of the small wooden jetty leading up to the main door of the island.

The building in front of him was large for a house, relatively small for an inn. It was a three story squarish building with a door in the center, a porch, and three windows on each floor above, in line with the door and the ground floor windows, through which he could see a lounge.

He disembarked, hefting his bag back onto his back and walked up to the doors, opening them and holding them open for the girl.

"Why thank you." She smiled mischievously, raising the edges of her sundress ever so slightly as though she were curtsying, and tipped slightly lower a sunhat to match her dress which Ethan had no idea where she had procured.

Ethan walked into the reception area, past two feet of bookshelves which made a sort of corridor at the entrance. To his right was a counter with one woman behind it, to his left was a reading area, and in front of him to the right was a lounge with a fire place, to the left two square tables capable of seating eight people each. Further down were the stairs and two large rooms, and an exit to the back.

He walked to the counter as the girl in the sundress rejoined a small group of three sitting in near the fireplace.

"Room for one?" The woman asked with a smile, opening a register.

"How much is it for one night?" Ethan asked hesitantly. The woman glanced down towards his belt and then gave him a kindly smile.

"For trainers it's about thirty to fifty dollars a night. I'll need to see your ID please." The woman replied.

Ethan handed his card over, a bit perplexed at why the price was so low. Just as he opened his mouth to ask, he got his answer. Hanging behind the woman was a placard.

 _The Island Inn – A Traveler's Hearth Hotel_

 _Traveler's Hearth hotels are funded privately to charge low rates to trainers with five or more gym badges to provide a luxury they have earned at an easily affordable cost. Please refer to management for rates. Meals included, access to all utilities included._

"You've come a long way Mr. Photon. Your fare will be thirty five dollars a night. Will you take it?"

"Yes please." Ethan smiled, recognizing the name of the chain even if he had never stayed in one of their hotels before. Traveler's Hearth was well known outside of trainer circles as well.

Ethan checked his watch once more. Five thirty in the afternoon. Taking the key from the woman, he walked up the two flights of stairs to his room and set his bags downs, freshening up and walking downstairs to examine the place. He found outside a tennis court and a pool, and beyond that a training or battle area, which seemed fitting now. He pulled his Pokemon off of his belt and released them all together.

"So guys… we beat Mr. Maple! We've got another badge, a foreign one now, to our names! So… I've a feeling that our battle for number eight will be much harder. So we should train. Get back into the groove of things properly, prepare for our next battle and whatnot. I have something to work on for each of you except for Specter – I'll explain that in a moment – so let's get to work, and then we can relax afterwards." Ethan clapped his hands together.

"Typhlosion. Keep working on eruption. Simple. Scizor… We're going to be working on some steel type oriented moves like Metal Claw and Bullet Punch. Lucario, dragon pulse, and Dewott, we've got aqua tail. Knight, you'll help with the last two, then I've got a TM for thunderbolt for you. Spread out and I'll come by and start you off." Ethan instructed, waiting for the others to go before speaking to Specter.

"So I do have a move I want you to learn, but for you to learn it you need a target _Pokemon_. And it's also a tricky one to learn. So we'll start when that when we're with Steven. I haven't found anything else yet, but I am looking. We can't spend six weeks doing nothing. So just practice everything else for now." Ethan nodded at it quickly and walked off to Scizor, Typhlosion already aware of what it was to do.

"Okay. So let's start with Bullet Punch. Essentially, it's steel type contact force, and a ridiculously fast punch. You can do that latter. Let's try and work on the former. Your method of evolution ought to help us ought. I also forgot to ask, how you're feeling in your new form after evolution. It's a big change. If you have anything at all you need to say to me, find Lucario and get help with that. On that note, do you have any trouble? A nod or a shake will suffice." Ethan asked.

Scizor shook its head quickly, performing a series of rapid movements in a more fluid manner than it could have before and cutting a rock into four pieces with x-scissor before he could process what happened.

"Great. Now let's work on nailing steel type moves so we can open up a new arsenal. Really there's not much I can say about this one." Ethan shrugged, walking off as Scizor set itself into a fighting stance. Its body really was much more fluid than before, where it had a fixed stance most of the time. It was crouching slightly, its abdomen back, its upper back following a bit, fists raised like a boxer as it started working.

"Okay… Lucario, so Dragon Pulse will use…. Dragon type contact force! I really didn't know that," Ethan quipped for his own amusement, turning towards the Dragonair next to the aura Pokemon. "Knight here can help with this."

"Dewott… Aqua tail shouldn't be too hard." Ethan began. As if to back up his point, Dewott turned around in agreement, its tail already coated in water. "Well then… I guess it's effectively using it with your body shape and the length of your tail we have to work on. You're stronger than you look. We ought to get someone to check up on you in terms of evolutionary progress. How about we get started?"

Ethan stepped back and watched his newest Pokemon take to attacking a boulder with its water coated/elongated tail to damage it. He was right. Dewott would need a good bit of practice before Aqua Tail could be used effectively. He glanced around the field at his other Pokemon, watching Typhlosion blow lava out violently as it tried to get the consistency and… explosiveness of the attack right. 

Looking at the faded white outlines of the area, he decided he ought to get some exercise in as well.

"I'll be right back guys! Keep at it!" Ethan shouted across the field, running inside and changing into clothes he could run in. Once he was back on the field, he started his laps, occasionally slowing down near a specific Pokemon to better observe its progress.

Scizor wasn't having too much difficulty with Bullet Punch. He theorized that the metal coat evolution served to accelerate progress with steel type contact force. From there he went to Lucario, who had made little to no progress whatsoever, but was patiently trying, and then to Specter, who was sparring with Knight, something it seemed like it was beginning to regret from its expression. Knight wasn't too bothered by the majority of the ghost and dark type attacks, even if they did hurt, and was putting up a good fight back, occasionally stopping the battle whenever Lucario needed help. Dewott was doing exactly the same thing. Practicing and experimenting.

Ethan stopped after running what he estimated was about twelve kilometers, having taken two hours with breaks to talk to or keep up with his Pokemon. Then he noticed the girl in the sundress sitting on a deck chair by the pool, watching him, some of her friends with her. Standing by her side was a young man about her age with light brown hair wearing a blood red crew neck and black jeans, watching him and his Pokemon. To her other side was a shorter blonde girl, reading a book.

Ethan checked his watch and recalled his Pokemon one by one after speaking to them a bit about their progress, before walking over to the group by the poolside.

"Anything interesting?" He asked nonchalantly, picking up the small bag he had brought down earlier and rifling about in it.

"You're a pretty strong trainer kid. What's your name?" The guy in red asked.

"Ethan Photon, New Bark Town, Johto Region." Ethan rattled off, setting the bag down and shaking the outstretched hand.

"Liam Maxwell. Slateport City, right here in Hoenn. You've come a long way kid." Liam introduced himself. "How many badges do you have?"

"Six in Johto, and Petalburg as my seventh after I left because of the war." Ethan replied, pulling his swimming clothes out of his bag, ducking into a stall and changing. Without another word he dove into the pool, swimming as fast as he could (which wasn't particularly fast) from end to end. He stopped after a few laps, staying at the pool's edge for a moment where the girl introduced herself.

"Aliana Reynolds." She said to him, giving him the same mischievous smile as earlier. "Nice to meet you."

"I'll say the same." Ethan replied.

Suddenly the girl reading her book looked up. "How many badges do you think _we_ have?"

Ethan stared at her for a moment before his eyes shifted to Liam, spotting something of interest clipped to his belt.

"You're all Ace trainers. Rank Three's." Ethan replied, crossing his arms.

"Well I'll be damned. You're right." The girl replied. "Alice Madison."

"How old are you? And how long have you been a trainer for?" All off a sudden another voice joined the medley, coming from near the door where the last member of the group, a sandy haired, thin man was standing, the sleeves on his green shirt rolled up to the elbows.

Ethan frowned for a second, trying to remember what month it was. Determining it to be November, he replied: "Almost seventeen. It's November. I've been journeying since maybe June or July?" 

"Not bad at all." The guy explained, extending a hand as he ventured towards them. "Rick Christensen. Nice to meet you Ethan." 

"You seem like an interesting kid. How about we sit down for dinner tonight, the lot of us, at around….. Eight?" Rick proposed, crossing his arms and leaning forward against the back of a chair.

"I'll be there." Ethan replied, facing them and diving backwards into the pool to continue his laps. He spent some more time in the pool, clearing his head as slowly the others went inside, waiting until he was alone to exit and make his way back up to his room.

Ethan sat down in his room after showering, staring at the small fire burning in the fireplace to kill fifteen minutes before going downstairs.

' _Victoria… I wonder how she's doing….. She's really pretty...'_ Ethan stopped thinking for a moment as her image became fixated in his head, until he realized and tried to empty his head, watching the fire burn without a thought for a few more minutes before he headed downstairs to go sit at one of the two tables, where Alice and Rick were already seated. Liam walked up after a minute from behind him and sat down as well, as did Aliana.

…

The next morning….

Ethan walked up to the edge of the water with the four ace trainers, waiting to see what they would do.

Liam raised a hand and Ethan could have sworn he heard Seven Nation Army coming from somewhere as the water in front of them started to churn. Each of them had their backs to him and their arms crossed as their Pokemon seemed to arrive. Right in front of Rick, a massive Gyarados broke the surface of the water and leaped out, coming back down with a splash and settling at his height.

In front of Liam the water settled down as a mean looking Blastoise appeared at surface level. Alice was approached by a massive Mandibuzz from above. An Empoleon appeared near Aliana, just as a roaring Salamence flew down to Rick.

"Salamence, can you take Ethan to the other side with us?" Rick asked as the background music stopped, something Ethan determined was coming from Liam's pocket.

The dragon type nuzzled her before bending low as it came near Ethan, allowing the Johtan to mount it as the others took their places atop their Pokemon. Without a word of warning Salamence took to the air, rising rapidly as Ethan held on tight, watching the others progress across the lake until after a few minutes, they reached the other side.

Salamence set the shaking trainer down on the wide dirt path which for the most part made up the east side of Route 103. There was some grass on either side, not tall, and a few more trees on the left than the right, but otherwise it was just a plain and simple route with a couple of people visible milling about further down.

Rick approached him, recalling his Gyarados as the others dealt with their Pokemon, swapping them out for flyers.

"Keep in touch kid." He said, mounting Salamence and joining his the other's in the sky.

Ethan waited a minute or two to relax slightly before he pulled his bag slightly higher on his shoulder and faced the route. Here he was again, traveling. With a grin he set off. It was good to be back on the road.

…

 **A/N: Thanks for reading! Some characters who are introduced may be simply to give Ethan Human Interaction. Some may not. Hope everyone had a good holiday season, whatever they may be for you. Feel free to review! Spironax**


	16. To Bring a City to its Knees

**Chapter 16: To Bring a City to its Knees**

 **A/N: Not much ado except declare that I'm going with the Mauville City in the original R/S/E games for this story. Eh… I'm not making any excuses for my prolonged absence from the world of fanfiction. I was writing for a fair period of the time. Just not this. But hey! I'm back! Read, review, and above all, enjoy. Spironax.**

…

Ethan continued his walk down Route 103, checking the remaining distance on his phone. By the estimate it was giving him, it would be more than a few hours till he reached the bridges to Mauville. From where he was standing, five kilometers from where he started, it was another twenty eight kilometers. At average speed that would take about four hours. He didn't feel a need to take his bike out at the moment. He had after today five weeks and five days. Considering there was only one truly long and difficult stretch of travel, he felt he could take it at a decent pace and use the time to train in different areas rather than in just one place. Besides, from what he gathered, he had another four kilometers to bike once he reached the cycling road should he choose to take that path.

He sighed and continued walking down the road as he checked his watch. It was around eight in the morning. Four hours plus the cycling to Mauville city for half an hour and training for maybe two hours ought to get him there by three in the afternoon. That would give him time to train, explore, and see the city. Looking up, he determined that the nearest person was still some ways off. He reached for his belt, calling out Lucario to keep him company as he walked for some time.

The blue wolf like Pokemon formed next to him in a flash, head facing forward, and standing on one knee with a paw to the ground.

' _What ensues Trainer Ethan?'_ Lucario intoned, straightening and walking slightly behind Ethan.

"Nothing much. It's going to be a really long walk all the way to the geographical turning point on the way to Mauville and I thought I could do with some company." Ethan shrugged.

' _I see. Have you any thoughts on my progress?'_ it asked, occasionally staying behind then leaping or dashing forward.

"You've adjusted comfortably to your new form, especially with the weight of your new bones, and you're doing fine. Dragon pulse will definitely take a while, but it'll be worth it in the end. You're as fast as a dragon in the air, and as versatile, which means you can very easily match them, if not for the type disadvantage of the majority of your moves. Which is where Dragon Pulse comes into play." Ethan explained, stretching his arms as he walked.

' _Understood. The resident dragon type is proving to be very helpful when it comes to such.'_ Lucario remarked, watching Ethan walk forward before leaping up to him.

"Knight? Yeah. He is. Once he's a Dragonite he'll be much friendlier, not that he isn't." Ethan agreed, walking on. He checked his watch, moving to the distance tracker. Since he had called Lucario out, he had traversed another two kilometers.

"Let's keep heading forward while I review the plan for the upcoming weeks." Ethan suggested, despite the fact that they had never stopped.

"So assuming we reach Mauville today, we ought to spend the remainder of today and tomorrow training, before we even think of challenging Watson, the electric type gym leader. Possibly even another day. We need the time before our eighth gym battle. From there, it's a very long journey by foot to a place by the name of Fortree City. I'll say it could take two weeks to traverse that one stretch. But it'll be amazing. Two weeks of training, stopping, seeing Fortree city, and then heading out to Mossdeep where we'll take on Tate and Liza, the psychic type gym leaders who fight double battles. Then it's straight to Sootopolis to challenge Wallace, the water master. After that it's training with Steven. So all in all, assuming we stay in each city three days, including today for Mauville, that's three and a half to four weeks more weeks of our five and a half." Ethan detailed, taking notes himself as they walked on.

' _It seems like a solid plan. If we have enough time, I would suggest adding even more training onto that, but that would be debatable.'_ Lucario suggested, at this point running on top of some trees near Ethan so fast that its weight didn't break the dark green canopy spreading to the East, making ripples in it instead.

"That's a good idea. We'll adjust based off of progress, both in training and in how much land we have left to cover. Why don't you come down and walk by my side again now, we're approaching other people. You might seem a bit odd walking on trees. I mean we stick out anyway. I don't look too much like a Hoennian, and you're a Sinnoh Region Pokemon based off of universal classification." Ethan placed a hand on his water bottle, pulling it out and drinking as Lucario obediently leaped down from the trees and began walking by his side as they passed a chubby man with a bald patch, wearing a pichu sweater to match his kids' pichu costumes.

They passed by him without a challenge being issued making their way forward in the direction of the next trainer as Ethan recalled Lucario, having walked some five kilometers together with it.

He walked along, taking in the scenery and the serene atmosphere for another hour, past various people, trainers and civilians alike, until he was stopped dead in his path by a similar man to the first person he had seen: Short, fat and balding. This one even had his kids with him as well, three little tykes running about his legs, two girls and a boy.

"You there! Will you battle me?" The man called out, pointing at him as his kids tugged at his pant cuffs excitedly.

"Do you have any gym badges?" Ethan replied, nearing the man.

"I have one!" He shouted back, a small green Pokemon with a wide flat head and yellow markings running up to him.

"I'm sorry sir! I'm a seven badge trainer and the Pokemon I have with me might be a bit much." Ethan apologized, hanging his head low as he continued on his way.

"Three on one! Your weakest Pokemon!" The man called back, looking at him with a strange expression on his face. "I must battle!"

Ethan sighed, looking at Dewott's container before turning to face the man.

"Fine. Who knows, you may beat me." Ethan reached for Dewott's pokeball and tossed it into the air, calling the water type out onto the route.

"Dewott. This should be easy. It's just a courtesy for a man who… needs to battle as he says. Three on one, but he only has one gym badge. You should be able to sweep him easily." Ethan whispered to his Pokemon, crouching to its level before standing up again.

"I've chosen my one Pokemon, the newest member of my team. Please choose your first!" Ethan shouted out, watching as the man called forward the little green Pokemon. "The first move's yours!"

"Electrike, thunder shock!" the man called out, revealing the green Pokemon to be an electric type, as it had seemed.

"Dewott dodge it and use water pulse!" Ethan instructed, watching Dewott easily jump out of the small range of the weak electric shocks and retaliate with water pulse. The circular wave of water slammed into the electric type and sent it reeling backwards, clearly dizzy and hurt.

"Fury Cutter." He nodded, watching Dewott leap forward and knock the Electrike out with one glowing green cutter, highlighting Electrike's weakness.

"Come on out, Plusle!" the man released a very small bipedal Pokemon with a pale yellow body and red markings, another electric type judging by the name and the sparks on its cheeks.

"Plusle! Thunder wave!" The balding man called.

"Same drill Dewott." Ethan sighed, watching Dewott take Plusle out even more easily than it did Electrike.

"Minum!" This time a blue marked counterpart of the previous Pokemon came out, and once again the same thing ensued.

"Dewott! Return!" Ethan called out after Minum was seen as unconscious. "I'll be on my way."

Ethan walked off leading the man be as he continued on his way down Route 1o3. Time passed quickly as he walked down the quiet route, enjoying the good weather. Route 103 was further south in Hoenn, which meant it was relatively colder compared to the north because Hoenn was in the southern hemisphere. Relatively. It was somewhere around twenty four degrees outside, and Ethan was loving it. Johto would be freezing at this time of year. He continued his steady pace down the route, noticing people going about their business along the way.

There were some women picking flowers and smelling them before putting them in vases of water carried around in baskets, a few people out on walks, and some other trainers. For the most part, the Hoennian trainers didn't see any need to challenge him. Some he noticed were wary of him as they sized him up. Others simply passed by without noticing him.

Ethan continued his walk until he had somewhere around seven kilometers left, finally stopping to rest and let his Pokemon out of their pokeballs, with but an hour of walking left until he reached the cycling road, where if he pushed himself it would be another half hour to get to Mauville. Hoenn's routes, at least in the south, weren't proving to be too long.

Ethan looked to the left, noticing a clearing behind the trees, recalling that there were multiple where he had seen people venture, and went up to the ledge. Giving himself a running start, he pushed off of the dirt face with one foot and boosted himself high enough to grab ahold of the top. Ethan wrapped his arms around the base of a narrow tree and used it as an anchor to pull himself up, clambering onto higher ground and standing up.

Dusting his pants off with a heavy breath, he walked on into the clearing, finding himself in a large open space with more than a few tree stumps and a pile of sticks at one end with a sign marked 'firewood'. Ethan stared at it for a moment before realizing that either previous travelers or nearby gyms must have made the upper ledge areas into a few camping spots for trainers who were traveling slowly or at night.

Looking around, he decided he could get a decent amount of training in and moved to release his Pokemon, calling Lucario, Knight, Specter, Typhlosion Scizor and Dewott all out at once. Pressing the buttons on all six of his pokeballs, three with each hand, while they were still minimized and tossing them into the air immediately. He deftly snatched them out of the air one by one and clipped them back onto his belt as his Pokemon materialized in front of him, taking in their surroundings.

Ethan sat down on a stump nearby for a moment and took a breath, checking his watch. Half past eleven. He simply sat there for a moment, staring at his Pokemon before he finally spoke up.

"Time to train guys. Typhlosion, I don't want to damage the terrain too much because there's so much greenery, so no practicing eruption. You'll spar with Specter today. Everyone else, same drill as last time. Spread out, and we'll get to work. Specter, Typhlosion, I'll join you soon." Ethan instructed, pulling his water bottle out of the side of his bag and drinking.

After wetting his throat, he walked on over to his trio of practicing Pokemon: Dewott, Knight and Lucario. Knight had garnered what knowledge it needed to from the one use TM Ethan had bought for thunderbolt and was practicing on a nearby rock, near enough for Lucario and Dewott to ask for help if they needed it. Dewott was simply practicing Aqua Tail and figuring out how to effectively use it with its small tail, going up against a stump. Lucario on the other hand was still figuring out how to get a hold of Dragon Type Contact force to use Dragon Pulse, which it was somehow attempting to form with its hands instead of its mouth, given that it couldn't open its jaws as much as it would have liked, and forming a dragon attack right outside of the mouth was a skill that seemed limited to actual dragon type Pokemon.

Ethan watched as a few wisps of indigo energy left Lucario's palms and swirled around in the air between them, forming a small sphere about two inches wide. Instead of firing it off, Lucario focused itself on getting more energy out to increase the size of it rather than uselessly fire off such a small charge. Ethan stared at the blue Pokemon as it attempted to further charge up the attack. Five minutes passed before it managed to get another single wisp out to join the small sphere and enlarge it to the size of a tennis ball.

Ethan moved on to Specter and Typhlosion, watching them spar with a pleasantly surprising ferocity. Typhlosion unleashed a flamethrower to Specter's face, surprising the ghost type and causing it to dissipate from the heat. A few seconds passed and a ticked off Gengar reformed in the shadows a few feet back, its grin slightly less prominent as it faced down the fire type. It stood that way for a moment before lashing out twice with shadow punches, each one dodged by the fire type, who caught Specter off guard with a spur off the moment Flame Charge. Ethan watched as Typhlosion's fur rippled in a wave downwards, from where the fire erupted on its back, the line of navy green fur trailed by flickering flames, and from the top of its head down as flames poured out the side of its mouth and engulfed it, all in the span of a second. Ethan noticed the pre tensed legs right before Typhlosion fired off like it had been sitting on a compressed spring and slammed into the Gengar, passing through it after a few meters of pushing it and hitting the ground, flames gone.

Ethan frowned as he watched it. This affirmed his thinking that of his Pokemon, Specter was probably the one which he would need to command the most in battle. Typhlosion had just proven its ability to handle itself in a random situation without his input, though he would give it, and it had done so before as well. Specter needed to learn a bit more on that because there would definitely be times when he wouldn't be able to react fast enough to give it instructions.

"Stop!" He called out, drawing the attention of the two Pokemon as the sparring screeched to a halt. Typhlosion quiet literally stopped its charge head on.

"Okay. So what I'm seeing here is that you, Specter, aren't as good at judging what to do or how to react for yourself, because you get too into it too quickly. Here's the thing, while I am supposed to command you, you need to be able to react on your own as well, because there are definitely going to be times when I won't be able to speak in time." Ethan explained, moving towards Typhlosion. "So to make sure it's not just your opposing Pokémon's ingenuity that you're fighting against, what we'll do is that I'll spar with Typhlosion against you, and we'll see how far your own reactions can get you. We'll start doing this with someone different every day."

Specter cautiously nodded, moving back and taking up a fighting stance as it stared warily at Typhlosion and Ethan.

"Typhlosion, I want you to not do anything of your own volition except for dodging and blocking. Specter, you should also be prepared to fight a Pokemon by taking advantage of the gaps in ordering. I'll do my best to not leave any, but undoubtedly there will be some." Ethan finished, crossing his arms and looking at his Pokemon.

"Typhlosion, flamethrower, flame charge through and Solar Beam." Ethan called out, watching Specter duck out of the way of the bright stream of fire, eyes wide as it barely managed to counter Typhlosion with a shadow punch when the fire type barreled out of the side of the flames as they died down, cloaked in flames.

Specter retaliated with a quick dark pulse, to be met by a solar beam, the two attacks colliding head on. The expanding ring of translucent black hit the shining greenish white beam and stopped dead, neither attack moving. Ethan stood and watched it for a second as he contemplated what to do. Specter was funneling energy into the dark pulse to maintain the attack against what was a move which used light, and Typhlosion was simply using the light from the sun and the streaming from its back to keep the onslaught up.

"Typhlosion, flame charge through! As hot as you can get!" Ethan called out, still marveling at the silence that rang throughout the area as a result of the collision of the two attacks.

Typhlosion made to increase its flames and dim solar beam a bit, allowing the dark pulse to inch closer, then all of a sudden enveloped itself in white-hot flames and broke through it, shattering the disc of energy and crashing into Specter.

Specter had no idea how to react and took the brunt of the hit, dissipating and reforming in a minute.

"Typhlosion 1, Specter 0!" Ethan called out with a grin, watching the perpetual grin on the Gengar's face turn into a frown.

"This ought to be a fun session." Ethan murmured to himself, getting back into the battle.

…

Ethan walked up to door of the small building with its two doors, one on either side of the fencing that barred off the cycling road. He could smell the sea breeze, and to his right was the cycling road, a massive, modern, six meters wide oversea bridge which made over a dozen random twists and turns and went all the way to the outskirts of Mauville City. He looked off to the north, where he could see the beginning of the just above water level path crossing through the inlet and making a lake on one side as it went down under the cycling road. Ethan stared at the two paths for a moment, reaffirming his decision and removing his bike from his bag. He set it up and climbed onto it, going through the sensor equipped door into a room which was basically two passages between three counters, one against each wall and one four sided one in the middle. He pedaled over to the one with the green circle on the LED above it and biked onto a metal stretch, facing a bar like those in parking garages.

The man behind the counter on his right, the central one, typed away at the keyboard as some form of camera whirred, examining his bike before raising the bar. Ethan biked hesitantly past the bar and stopped and turned to one of the counters.

"What was that about?" Ethan asked, slightly perplexed. Johto, unlike most regions, didn't have a cycling road.

"New regulations have it that only bikes in good condition with relatively well gripped tires can go on the cycling road because of its modern glass floor and the amount of racers who practice on it. If you see large open areas on your way, those are for making turns or stopping by the rail." A man typing away at his computer explained without once looking up from his screen.

"Good to know." Ethan replied, and turned back to the second door, biking out and into the wilderness again. He crossed the grass up until the ramp leading up to the cycling road, pedaling as hard as he could to get up it quickly. He found himself over indeed a glass floor, with some whitish blue material on the edges where people seemed to be going slower than ahead. He was in a wide rectangular area, where indeed a man wearing a full green biking suit made a perilously tight turn and sped back towards Mauville. Ethan tightened the straps around his shoulders holding his pack up and hit the pedals, staying on the glass as he went fast, for the most part without any trouble. He continued his biking, dropping into the slower white lane for a while to look at the scenery. To his right he could see water, stretching out for a good while before the coastline turned inwards slightly and narrowed what he could see in terms of water.

A few small islands dotted the sparkling blue nearby, and he could see the ground path below the cycling road, where people were walking, either for leisure or to get to Slateport or Mauville.

Ethan kept going, once more on the glass, for another quarter of an hour, until he screeched to a halt in front of a block. Standing in a row were twelve men and women wearing red sweatshirt like uniforms with grey pants and stylized letters M's emblazoned on their front. Pokemon filled in the gaps between them and fully blocked the route. Ethan could recognize some of the Pokemon, including a few Golbat and a Mighteyena or two. There was one he couldn't recognize, a large bulky red quadruped Pokemon with what looked like two volcanoes on its back and three blue circles marking its sides.

The unknown Pokemon stood next to a short woman with purple hair wearing grey shorts instead of pants, her arms crossed. The way she was standing, at the center, made Ethan sure that she was in charge of the others.

Scattered near him were maybe four other cyclists. He pulled to a stop near the Eastern railing and dismounted, one hand on his belt.

"What's the deal here!? You're blocking the road!" Shouted the cyclist in green.

"Can you just let us past?" Called out a girl wearing all pink.

"Bunch of morons." One of the men in red snickered.

"Shut up." The girl with purple hair ordered. Immediately the man's spine straightened and his lips glued themselves together as he stared off into the distance. She was definitely in charge. "Sweetie, we're not here to let you go. In fact, you get to join us as we blow this bridge up."

Ethan's eyes widened in horror as the woman smiled in an unsettling, sickly sweet manner. He turned around to see another line of people in the same uniform trapping them, and not a soul to be seen otherwise.

"See here though. Since I'm so nice. I'll tell you what's going to happen." Her eyes lit up as she ran a hand through the fur on her Pokémon's muzzle.

"I'm one to give you a chance to live, so here are your options. You can do nothing. We'll blow the bridge up. You die. Or one of you can fight me in a Pokemon battle. If you win, then you all go free and we don't blow up the bridge. If you lose you die and we blow up the bridge. If you try and jump into the water, by the time you breach the surface you'll be dead." She continued smiling as though she were talking about dinner plans. "So it's your choice. You can talk amongst yourselves and decide. We're not in any hurry."

Ethan swallowed, slowly stepping closer to the other four people carefully, as though he was stepping on a minefield. Slowly removing his hand from his belt, he spoke to them in a whisper.

"Who here has the most experience?" Ethan asked, waiting for a few minutes for the others to speak.

"We're not trainers." Two twin cyclists in blue and red remarked, putting their hands to their hips.

"I've got a machop and no badges." Declared the girl, adjusting the strap on her bike helmet nervously as she spoke.

"A Magnemite and a single badge." The man in green offered up, crossing his arms.

"Then it's to be me. Seven badges." Ethan sighed, having honestly hoped there was someone here that was stronger than him for reassurance. Then again, he would rather keep his life in his own hands.

"What's she doing?" The girl asked nervously, gesturing carefully towards the purple haired woman as she slid a large bundle of maybe twenty or red cylinders with short wicks sticking out of them.

"That's dynamite…." The man in green blanched, his arms falling to his sides. "To blow up a good chunk of the bridge."

Ethan frowned, trying to ignore his racing heart and looked each person in the eye. "This woman's psychotic. She'll kill us anyway. So… I'm going to have a fire type Pokemon kick the dynamite into her and set it alight, and the only thing we can do is jump. Watch for it."

"Are you crazy?" One of the people in blue asked, his eyes wide with horror.

"It's the only thing that'll have a chance. Kid's right. She's a psycho." The red suited one muttered back.

"Let's do this. One on one!" Ethan called out, stepping forward with a hand on Typhlosion's pokeball.

"Certainly my dear." The woman snapped her fingers and the Pokemon by her side lumbered forward, it's great height showing because of its quadruped stance.

"Typhlosion!" Ethan released his Pokemon and called it up to him, whispering into its ear and stroking its fur affectionately in a quiet attempt to explain what was to happen to it.

The woman pulled a switchblade out of her waistband and began filing away at her nails, speaking quickly.

"Camerupt! Earthquake!" She instructed, jumping into the air as the attack shook the entire bridge, knocking Ethan off of his feet.

"Typhlosion! Now!" he shouted, watching the bundle of dynamite fly into the air.

Regaining its bearings as the bridge swayed with the aftershock of the move, Typhlosion used the momentum to leap into the air and kick the sticks forward, setting them alight.

Ethan ran for the edge of the bridge, recalling Typhlosion and jumping over the railing as the explosion caught him and threw him away from the bridge and created a ten meter break in it, sending the other cyclists flying back onto the other side of the bridge as the group in red took the brunt of the hit on one side. Ethan saw his bike crash into the water and braced himself for impact, landing in the water with a hard splash. He opened his eyes as he felt himself caught in a downwards current, a few chunks of the cycling road following him down. He tried to break out of the path but failed as he was sucked into a hole in the ground and thrown against a hard surface, his pack cushioning the impact somewhat.

His vision became hazy and he slipped out of consciousness as the debris that had been following him in the current slammed into and blocked the meters wide hole. He tried to move, lifting his hand to the back of his head and back. He could make out that it was stained red at one of his fingertips. Then everything went black.

…

Ethan woke up coughing violently, bolting upright from his position collapsed on the floor. A few coughing spasms raked through his body before it stopped and he was able to pay attention to his surroundings. He seemed to be in some form of an underground bunker. The walls, floor and roof were all discernable in the pale, blue, emergency lighting. He could see openings in the wall towards either end, like doorways up to the roof.

He lifted up his hand and stared at it, looking at the dried blood on his ring finger. He ran his hand through his hair again slowly, coming to a stop where he found blood dried and caked around a patch of hair in near the back of his head. Pulling his arm back, he lifted the other one and looked at his watch. It was made for travelers in the wilderness, and it had lived up to the advertisements and survived. Activating the backlight, he checked the time, and anything else the watch would tell him.

23:08, 14-10-15. So he had spent some four or five hours unconscious. He flipped through all the displays the watch had, checking everything from the temperature to the height to the compass. The temperature was decent enough, something like thirty degrees, but it was the other things that interested him. Apparently, he was a forty six feet below sea level. Mauville was supposed to be at sea level. As for the compass, it was pointing north. Or what he assumed was north.

He raised his arms, stretching them, the watch going close to the wall, and the needle on the screen deflected sharply. Frowning, Ethan moved the watch back, and watched the needle resume its position. Repeating the exercise, he realized the wall had a magnetic field. That meant he couldn't depend on his compass for a sense of direction, because if one plain flat wall had a magnetic field, surely the others would too.

He reached up and ran his hand along it, his fingertips meeting a cold metallic surface with linear grooves in places. He yanked his hand back as a spark ran up it when his finger crossed the groove, shaking it in the air.

"So that's open wiring…." Ethan mused, trying to turn to his right. He swore lightly at the aching in his sides as he pulled his pack around to him and rifled about in the top pocket for his torch, pulling the small cylinder out and switching it on.

A beam of white light cut through the darkness, making the metal plated wall sparkle. Ethan moved it to the floor and the roof, seeing only metal, but without grooves in the floor. One of the walls had a piece of debris jammed into the hole, with more behind it, sealing him in. Pulling the ends of the torch, he turned it into a small lamp and lay back against his pack. He checked his belt, running his hands over the six pokeballs, and released Typhlosion.

"Hey buddy." Ethan shifted, running his hands down the fire type's coat. He was careful to avoid the line of miniature craters near the top from which steam was slowly leaking out.

Typhlosion looked around and then growled quietly, laying down next to him. Reaching for his other pokeballs, he released Dewott and Lucario.

"So… Stuff happened… we're in what I'm assuming is a bunker of some sort, presumably under the ocean. As it is, I may need a bit of help figuring out what condition I'm in because the blast caught and threw us down here. So, Lucario I'm going to ask you to hold my phone once I turn the camera on so I can get some idea of what my back looks like right now, because it hurts like anything and its burning a bit."

Ethan pulled the device out of his pocket, thankful for the almost everything resistant case it was in, looking at it. The case was cracked and bent, but prying it open, he found the phone to be fine. There was however, no signal of any kind. As expected. He opened the camera and started a recording, standing up slowly as he handed it to Lucario to hold carefully between its paws.

He pulled his still damp and apparently torn t-shirt off and put it down, turning in a circle close enough to the camera to catch what he looked like. Stopping, he took the phone out of Lucario's paws slowly and stopped the recording, looking at it. There were large abrasions across his back, where the tears had been in the t-shirt, except a little larger, and one on his right side, which he had noticed whilst turning. His arms were otherwise fine, if sore, and as far as he could tell, nothing was wrong with his legs from how they felt.

"Okay." Ethan deleted the recording, rifling about in his bag for his first aid kit. Removing it, he looked at Typhlosion and Dewott, and then at the torn t-shirt again, sitting down.

"Typhlosion, could you dry that t-shirt up. We're going to use it as a rag. That's really all it is now." Ethan sighed as Lucario held the plain grey cloth near Typhlosion's flaring back, drying it up.

"Okay, now Dewott, can you soak it?" He turned to the water type, smiling as his Pokemon worked together to get the tasks done quickly.

"Great. Now Typhlosion, I need you to make this hot, but not dry. Not super-hot or anything. I should be able to hold it." Ethan instructed twisting around and watching as Lucario held the cloth near Typhlosion's back, the craters spewing fire out to a short distance.

Lucario brought the cloth over to him a second later and touched it to his hand.

"That'll do. Lucario, could you run this across the wounds. Slowly." Ethan added, sitting still as Lucario ran the steaming rag over his back, cleaning over the wounds.

"Great. We can be done with that now." Ethan remarked, pulling a clean pad of cotton wool out of the kit and dabbing it with disinfectant, handing it to Lucario. "Same drill."

He sat through it with gritted teeth Lucario put the used pad down on the rag and looked at him.

' _What next?'_ it asked, red eyes staring at him.

"I'm going to give you ointment and wraps. Put the ointment on the wounds and wrap them. ." Ethan pulled out a roll of gauze and gaze it to Lucario, along with a tube.

A few minutes later, once he had a fresh shirt on and had packed away the first aid kit, he stood up again and picked up his torch, keeping it as it was in lamp form. Picking up his pack, he tried to hoist it onto his back and immediately gave up, finding the pressure on the wounds too much at the moment. Sighing, he settled down and pulled his sleeping bag out of it and set it down, climbing in as he was.

"Guys, keep watch in shifts. We have no clue what's down here. For all we know there may be Pokemon or people down here. Pokemon are more likely." Ethan lay down on his good side, closing his eyes as he tried to let sleep envelope him, and it did, even if it took half an hour.

The image of Dewott curled up sleeping in front of him hazed out of focus, and then rippled, turning into an image of a massive cave with a waterfall and a lake on one side and rock platform jutting out into it. Ethan looked down and found his feet planted firmly on stone.

He could see a massive shadow in the waterfall, and he tried to raise his feet and step backwards but they wouldn't move. He could no longer feel his legs or make them move, yet at the same time he could feel tenfold the pain of crystal tendrils creeping up and tightening around his legs, approaching his waist. He tried to move but the rest of his body was the same way, only his eyes unaffected. He cringed and closed his eyes instinctively as the crystal approached his face, enveloping him. But he felt nothing.

Opening his eyes, he found his face encased in crystal. Clear, flawless crystal. A deep resounding voice, yet a harmonious one, sounded through the crystal, filling his mind.

' _A gift child.'_

Suddenly the pressure from the crystal disappeared and everything went dark. Ethan stopped shifting in his sleeping bag as his sleep became dreamless, Typhlosion watching their surroundings warily.

…

Ethan woke up sitting carefully and checking the time on his watch. He had slept another four hours. Climbing out of his sleeping bag he packed it away, looking at his Pokemon and recalling Typhlosion and Dewott. Picking at his belt, he released Specter to accompany them as well.

"You two work well in closed quarters, and I don't know what lies ahead." Ethan pulled a notebook and a pen out of his bag, drawing a sketch of the room as if it were on a map. "We're exploring. We need to find a way out. If this place has live circuits it's being used for something."

Ethan took another look around the room. By his estimate, it was some thirty feet by twenty feet, with a doorway on each long side. He decided to mark what the compass in his watch was calling north in the center of the room his north on the map go from there. So he headed what was his south.

Walking through the doorway, he found himself in what seemed to be an almost identical room, except three times longer than the one he just left. The dim blue light and the light from his lamp let him see enough to know that the room was empty, with the exception of two protrusions the size of manholes in the floor towards either side of the room. Ethan walked up to them, looking at them carefully with the torch in a single beam. One of them was green, and the other blue, and they seemed like massive switches. The green one was at the moment pressed down.

Making the room on his map, he continued south and found himself in a different room. This room was much larger, some one hundred meters by fifty meters, and had two chairs, a few boxes and a table in the southwest corner, and a large machine in the northwest corner. Looking around, he noticed a wide doorway in the eastern wall of the room, with a blue wall sealing it. Ethan walked up to the machine and looked at it. There were no buttons, no displays, nothing. Only patterns running across the off white surface which were lit up green. He could hear a low hum coming from it.

Frowning, he returned to the previous room, and looked at the two plates. Deciding to test his luck, he stepped onto the blue one. It sank under his weight as the green one rose, stopping just above the floor. Climbing off of it, Ethan walked to back to where the blue wall had been in the next room. Lo and behold, it was gone.

"Curious. So whoever made this place made it tricky to navigate in case someone broke in. Which means that there's something in here someone doesn't want people getting to." He mused aloud.

He pulled his notebook back out and marked the wall as blue, and marked the two switches on his map and walked over to the boxes and the table in the corner of the room. Stepping carefully, he shone his torch into the slightly open lid of one of the boxes and saw something white. Its eyes opened, small, round and dark. It wasn't exactly happy.

Ethan scrambled backwards, putting the light into lamp mode to illuminate a larger area as he backpedaled into Lucario's side.

"Guys! Pokemon!" Ethan stepped back, slightly calmer if anything as an Electrode burst of the box, bringing two more out of the other boxes. Together, they charged headfirst towards them. Ethan took a deep breath and started speaking. This was his thing. Battling.

"Specter, night shade! Lucario, extreme speed!" He instructed, barely getting the words out in time for them to attack.

Electrode were fast, but Lucario was faster. The aura Pokemon leaped into action, turning into a black and blue blur which gave the Electrode a number of marks in the same colors across its body. It looked like the wild Pokemon was being hit back and forth like a tetherball.

Specter grinned malevolently and stretched its limbs out, a sphere of blackness enveloping the two Electrode near it for a moment.

"Follow up with hypnosis and force palm!" Ethan said, pulling his staff out from its holster quickly and readying himself in case one came too close.

Lucario slammed its assailant into the wall and leapt backwards, which somehow left the metal unmarked. Specter's eyes began to glow and golden rings appeared in the air in a conical beam radiating towards one of the two Electrodes near it, putting it to sleep. Ethan took another step back, and then the sleeping Electrode exploded, sending its companion hurtling towards the wall and causing Specter to disappear.

Ethan himself was unaffected by the blast, watching as Specter slowly reformed with a frown on its face, both its opponents out cold. Lucario slammed a glowing steel bone into the remaining Electrode and threw it into the wall, wrapping up the situation.

"Come on guys, let's keep going." Ethan sighed, walking with his Pokemon through another couple of empty rooms until he found himself face to face with a massive staircase.

Ethan sprinted up it, followed quickly by Lucario and Specter, reaching the top in a little bit. It was a dead end. Just another metal wall. This one was slightly different though.

"It's darker, it's all one piece, it's got rivets near the top, and it's not seamlessly fitted into the walls… so it's either the exit, or it's whatever is being hidden down here… assuming something is being hidden down here. Given that we're likely at sea level, I'd say this is the exit."

Lucario closed its eyes and stared at the wall for a few moments.

' _You would be right. This gate is extremely thick, but I can discern trees just beyond it.'_ Lucario explained, opening its eyes once more.

"Then let's take it down. Force Palm! Let's go!" Ethan instructed, stepping back.

Lucario nodded along and slammed its glowing palm into the gate, causing it to do absolutely nothing.

"…. Let's try an extremespeed from the bottom of the staircase coupled with force palm." Ethan suggested, moving to the side, Specter floating above him all the while.

With a nod, Lucario leaped down the steps in bounds of forty, getting to the bottom and steeling itself. Ethan blinked and Lucario was lying on the steps near him, having crashed into the wall, and once again, done nothing to it…

"We are not giving up here." Ethan gritted his teeth as Lucario got to its feet and dusted itself off. He reached for his pokeballs and took two a hand, releasing his remaining four Pokemon.

"Guys… we're trapped somewhere, and we need to break this wall. Don't hold back. We break this wall, we're out. We don't… Even I can't say what'll happen then. Give this everything you have." He instructed them, stepping out of the way as they took places around the thirty foot by fifteen foot wall.

All hell broke loose as every one of his Pokemon unleashed their full power onto the wall. Seeing that Lava Plume only slid off the wall, Typhlosion had reverted to flamethrower and Focus Blast, Lucario was taking the wall up with close combat, Knight was freezing it and slamming it with dragon pulse and dragon tail, Dewott was using Razor Shell, Specter was attacking it with shadow ball and Scizor was attacking with bug buzz to try and hit a frequency that would damage it.

Ethan sat down and stared at his watch as the onslaught went on, unable to look at the combination of attacks targeting the one thing in their way.

Half an hour passed and Ethan decided to call it and check if there had been any progress.

"Guys! Stop for now!" Ethan shouted, drawing their attention. The barrage of attacks drew to a rapid stop and as the light from the last flamethrower disappeared, Ethan flicked on his torch, looking at the wall.

His heart sank as he found himself unable to find a single scratch, dent or weakened spot.

"This stuff has to be what they make the League rooms out of." He sighed, recalling all but Typhlosion.

Reaching into his bag he pulled out a granola bar and his bottle of water, accidentally knocking over the pack in the darkness. Picking it up, Ethan closed it properly and propped it up against a wall, noticing something had fallen out. Leaning forward, he picked up a leather bound book in a deep, rich red, with gold lining.

Ethan picked it up, frowning. He hadn't brought any books with him. Shining the torch on the cover, he found nothing, so he opened the first page, going completely still.

 _Nicolas James Photon_

 _1972 -_

 _To my son_

 _Ethan James Photon_

Ethan found himself unable to process what he was holding. He hadn't know that this existed. This being whatever lay ahead. A few minutes passed before he was able to flip to the second page of intricate, gold writing.

 _Son, should you be seeing this, you're either one of the Indigo Guard, or I've passed on and you're a trainer on your way to becoming a member of the Indigo Guard. I write this during the war with Kalos, between battles, to leave to you some thoughts of mine._

 _If you're reading this because I died in battle, then I'll say that if there were a few days when you hated me for dying on you guys, that's completely human. You're a bit too young as I'm writing this to understand that I'm willing to lay down my life for my region. Johto made me who I am. I've loved Lily since 2008. I've loved you since 1999. I've loved Lucy since 1994. I fell in love with your mother in 1992. But I also fell in love with Johto in 1990. I fight for Johto so that one day, you see what I see in it. I do not want you to grow up to be exactly like me, no matter how much you say that these days. I want you to grow up and find out who you are, and become yourself. If that means being like me, then by all means do so. But don't do it because I'm your father. That said, I know you'll most likely become a trainer. Every kid says they will, but you say it with a real fire. I have a feeling you actually will, and you'll find yourself capable of surpassing me if you let yourself journey as yourself, rather than as someone striving to be like me. I've got to leave for another situation, so I'll leave you with these words of wisdom. If you're faced with an impossible task, then find someone for whom it is possible._

Ethan couldn't understand why his cheek was wet before a tear fell onto his leg, and then another. Closing the book, he put his head down and let the tears come slowly as they did, trickling down his face like raindrops on a window. When his eyes dried up, he rubbed them for a second and opened the book again, flipping through the pages. At the end of the book were details for some moves and details about how to teach them to Pokemon, a map of Johto with details about every city that spanned two pages, and on the last page, outlines in gold ink, was a photograph of the entire family taken just before the war started.

Ethan put the book in his bag, locking the compartment it was in and closing the bag as tightly as he could. He hefted it up onto his back and stood up, looking at Typhlosion. Smiling, he scratched the top of Typhlosion's head.

"You'd have loved dad." Ethan looked down the staircase, thinking to himself. "Trying to push the debris out of the hole is a bad idea. It'll either come right back at us, or this place will flood… so we go beyond to whatever was the other way."

"What could this place hold…?" He mused, looking at the grooves in the walls which he now recognized as wires, thinking. "We're near Mauville city, in an underground bunker, where we've run into Electrode and found machinery and electronics... And there's a magnetic field. It could just be the wires in the walls, but I don't know…. There's nothing we can do but see for ourselves."

"Come on buddy, let's go." Ethan released Scizor and Lucario to walk with him, two who could see well in the dark, and kept Typhlosion with him. The powerhouse. His anchor.

"Wait. Powerhouse. It might actually be a generator that's down here." Ethan grinned, jogging through the rooms to get back to where he had woken up. He walked through the other doorway, flanked by Scizor and Lucario, to find himself at a staircase. Another corridor branched off to the right. Ethan walked down it, looking to see what was there. He found himself facing an empty space with an elevator shaft below it, for a platform elevator. He peered down into the darkness, not seeing any end to it in near sight. Shining his flashlight over the edge, he caught a glimpse of what he thought was the floor, really, really far down. He tried pressing the call button, but it didn't light up. It didn't press for that matter either.

"It's out of order… Guess we do this the hard way. Guys, I'll switch you out at regular intervals. Our target right now is to get downstairs to the generator, if that's what's down here. I'm assuming there'll be a computer with an uplink there. We can get help. So let's take this as training. From what I can tell there'll be a lot of floors, and probably a lot of wild Pokemon."

He looked each of the three Pokemon in the eye as they approached the staircase and grinned. "Let's do this!"

With that, Ethan shot off down the stairs with his Pokemon, going as far down as he could.

…

67 floors and sixteen hours later…

Ethan backpedaled, stepping out of the Magnezone's attack range to stay safe.

"Specter, dark pulse! Typhlosion, flamethrower!" he instructed, stepping back as his Pokemon attacked the electric type, running out of the way of its magnet bombs, which promptly accelerated towards the nearest part of the floor or the walls.

Ethan watched as Typhlosion engulfed the metallic behemoth in flames for the sixth time, finally knocking it out.

"Come on guys. I don't think we have much farther to go." Ethan caught his breath, releasing Lucario and Scizor and recalling Specter and Typhlosion as he walked down the staircase behind him.

This one was considerably longer than all the previous ones, some one hundred steps, which gave him hope that they'd made it to the bottom. He tried to avoid thinking about what would happen if what they needed wasn't down there. He walked into a large room, the only fully lit room in the entire facility. Ethan raised his arms to shield his eyes for a few moments until they adjusted to the light. Ethan looked up and understood why there had been so many stairs.

The chamber was absolutely massive, at least forty feet tall, and a hundred feet on each side. Sitting against the opposite wall was a behemoth of a machine. Its dull red surface was marked by green lines of light, flickering in different patterns consistently. Ethan walked up to, looking around it. He opened his watch and checked the compass. It was going haywire. This was definitely a generator, and by the looks of it, the facility powered all of Mauville.

Ethan looked around, trying to remain optimistic as he saw the hard truth of it. There was no console. Nothing. He sank to his knees, putting his face in his hands and stayed that way for a few minutes.

The hairs on his neck rose and for some reason he found himself unable to hear the sound of the generators hum, instead hearing a quiet crackling. He stood up, turned around and found himself riveted in place by the sight in front of him.

Prowling opposite him was a yellow canine like beast with lightning sparking off its fur and a thundercloud coming off of its neck. Raikou. Ethan stared at it, unmoving, as it moved about the room, coming to a stop near one of the walls and a large red protrusion in the floor. It looked at him, dead in the eye and put a paw on the protrusion, and in a flash of lighting disappeared.

Ethan stared at the spot where it had been, incapable of processing what had just happened. Instead, he found himself mechanically walking towards the red protrusion. It looked like another button. He approached it, immediately recognizing the universal symbol engraved in it.

"Find someone for whom it is possible." Ethan whispered, looking at Lucario.

"Lucario, the minute this thing activates, I need you to carry me as fast as you can back to the exit."

 _'Understood.'_ Lucario fixed its red eyes onto his gold for a moment and poised itself as Ethan recalled Scizor, readying himself.

Ethan stepped onto the plate, closing his eyes for a second and then opening them. The tile sank down under his weight and the humming of the generator stopped. Lucario picked him up and everything turned into a blur until they arrived at the gate. The impenetrable, unmoving, metal gate. Ethan sat there, waiting, with Lucario, until he heard something. A clicking noise. He stood up quickly, pack on his shoulders, arms in the air in a gesture of surrender, and Lucario by his side, ready to take on anything or anyone hostile. The gate started to slide down and moonlight entered through the ever widening gap, until the gate was completely in the floor. Ethan found himself facing a squat old man half a foot shorter than himself with an unruly grey beard and hair framing a round face.

"Wha- How? This place was locked!" the man asked as Ethan stepped into the moonlight, taking a breath of fresh air among the trees.

"I was on the cycling road when it was attacked. The blast threw myself and debris into the ocean. Somehow a wall broke and I got thrown in there." Ethan replied, putting his hands down and recalling Lucario.

"Oh my. You've been down there for over a day then haven't you?" The man replied, dusting his hands off on his brown sweater and extending his right one to Ethan. "Watson. I'm the Mauville City Gym Leader."

"Ethan." He shook the still dirty, rough hand and looked up at the moon.

"Well I must say Ethan, you must be a very impressive trainer to get that far down. And then, I understand your reasoning, but put the thought into words and it'll hit you much harder. You brought a city to its knees! You turned off the generator!"


End file.
